Christian Horner says Red Bull Racing will take its time to decide who may or may not succeed Sergio Perez at the team next year, but Australian GP winner Carlos Sainz seems like an obvious candidate for the coveted seat.
Following Lewis Hamilton’s decision to switch his allegiance from Mercedes to Ferrari, the 2025 drivers’ market has heated up and Sainz is now right in the center of the action.
Fresh off his dominant win in Melbourne, a feat achieved just two weeks after undergoing in Saudi Arabian emergency surgery for an acute case of appendicitis, the Spaniard’s stock is set to continue rising.
Sainz’s availability isn’t lost on Red Bull. However, it’s unclear if the Spaniard would be willing to join the Milton Keynes-based outfit with his former Toro Rosso teammate Max Verstappen sitting on the other side of the garage.
Sainz – who was once part of Red Bull’s young driver programme - and Verstappen were promoted to Formula 1 together, and there was little in terms of performance difference between the two young guns during their rookie season.
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But their rivalry was so intense that a “toxic” atmosphere developed at Toto Rosso according to Helmut Marko, who had no other choice but to steer Sainz towards another team, in this case Renault.
But ten years on, Horner believes the Spaniard is absolutely worthy of his consideration.
"Based on a performance like that, you couldn't rule any possibility out,” commented the Red Bull team boss after Sainz’s triumph in Melbourne.
"We just want to take our time. Checo was compromised [on Sunday] but has had a great start to the season, we are not in any desperate rush.
"Carlos is the only driver who has beaten Red Bull [since 2023] so he appears to be our nemesis."
Sainz isn’t the only driver eyeing a plim seat at Red Bull for 2025, with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo also on Horner’s potential list.
However, the Aussie’s chances of returning to the team to which he delivered seven wins between 2014 and 2018 are dwindling on the back of a very low-key start to his 2024 campaign.
But Horner argued that it is still early days for F1’s resident honey badger.
"I think it is still very early in the year to be thinking about this,” said the Red Bull team principal.
"Yuki is a very quick driver, we know that, but we want to field the best pairing we can have at Red Bull.
"Sometimes, you have got to look outside the pool as well. We have had a very fast unemployed driver win, the market is reasonably fluid with certain drivers."
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