Christian Horner indicates reason Red Bull didn't consider Carlos Sainz

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has addressed why Carlos Sainz was overlooked as a candidate to partner Max Verstappen.

On Wednesday it was confirmed that Red Bull and Sergio Perez had agreed to end their contract two years early following a dreadful 2024 season for the Mexican.

Red Bull are yet to announce Perez’s replacement but Liam Lawson is expected to be promoted from the sister Racing Bulls team.

Sainz was available as a free agent earlier this year after Lewis Hamilton’s shock switch from Mercedes to Ferrari was confirmed back in February, but Red Bull chose not to sign the Spaniard, who has since joined Williams.

Four-time grand prix winner Sainz made his F1 debut alongside Verstappen at Red Bull’s sister team in 2015 but never got the opportunity to race for the senior squad and eventually left the brand.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after Perez’s departure from Red Bull was finally made official, Horner indicated the team’s reasoning for not considering Sainz.

“I think Carlos is a great driver and we’ve seen that obviously this year at some times,” Horner explained. “You’ve got to look at all the various criteria and dynamics.

“At the point that we extended Checo’s contract you have to remember that he was second in the world championship and finishing on the podium in the first four out of five races.

“At the time we signed [the deal] he’d had four podiums in five races so it was a logical extension just to remove speculation of which there was already too much around the team.”

Verstappen and Sainz were believed to have endured a fractious relationship as teammates at Toro Rosso.

Earlier this year, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko claimed “the atmosphere between the two was quite toxic”.

“Sainz is, without a doubt, a great driver,” Marko told Marca. “He was almost on par with Max in Toro Rosso. The bad thing for him is that he was unlucky to have Verstappen as a team mate

“The atmosphere between the two at Toro Rosso was quite toxic. With the configuration we had then, I didn’t see a way to keep him with us, so Carlos went through Renault, McLaren and then he ended up at Ferrari.”

Sainz the ‘obvious, obvious candidate’

Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok told the broadcaster’s podcast that he “doesn’t understand” why Red Bull didn’t sign Sainz.

“This thing of, Max doesn’t want him or the father’s don’t get along - come on, it’s been a decade! They are at completely different stages of their lives, Max is now a four-time world champion,” he continued.

“And really that deference to whether the dads don’t get on.. At the end of the day they’ve lost the constructors’ world championship because the second car wasn’t scoring as well as the second Ferrari or the second McLaren on any given weekend.

“You have to have the best two drivers and to me Carlos was the obvious, obvious candidate.”