Christian Horner & Co. Favoring Carlos Sainz to Replace Sergio Perez as Contract Talks Begin in Suzuka, Reveals F1 Insider

“You’ve had a very fast unemployed driver win today. The market is reasonably fluid with certain drivers. Carlos is the only driver that’s beaten Red Bull [in the last two years], so he appears to be our nemesis,” said Christian Horner when Carlos Sainz won the Australian GP. Sainz is in the form of his lifetime but despite this, he is currently ‘jobless’ for 2025. Well, hopefully not for long. And Red Bull is the one wanting him the most, or probably it is just Christian Horner. But what happens to Sergio Perez then?

With Sergio Perez already in contract with Red Bull, he is also one of the suiters for the team. The man who has played the ultimate supporter of Max Verstappen now wants the negotiations to begin, but is he even on Red Bull’s list? The Milton Keynes team has many suitors and Carlos Sainz may outrank Sergio Perez here.

Sky Sport’s F1 Pundit, Ted Kravitz talking on Ted’s Podbook, Springtime in Suzuka said, “Checo saying he wants to get negotiations for 2025 started now, and he wants to sit down…hammer out a deal for next year. At the same time, Christian Horner ended the Australian GP [by] telling anyone who would listen how great Carlos Sainz was. So when you got one side of management saying he quite fancies Carlos Sainz for the second seat alongside Max Verstappen that if Max Verstappen is going to stay indeed… But then you have got Helmut Marko, we don’t know how he feels about Sainz. does he feel that when he left the Red Bull driving stables a while ago, wasn’t quite on [the] best terms, and doesn’t really fancy having him back? We don’t know.”

But amid all of this, what does Carlos Sainz have to say about his employment prospects?

Carlos Sainz on his plans beyond 2024

When asked about his Australian GP win, Sainz said he is still an unemployed man. But that is true for 13 drivers on the grid. However, it is also true that Sainz is the most sought-after man. After all, he is the only one to beat Max Verstappen twice. Admitting to talking to various teams, Sainz wants to get it sorted “sooner rather than later”

Talking to the media, Carlos Sainz stated, “It’s a matter of going more into detail and seeing the more realistic options and what are the best options for me and my future. I don’t have any news for you or nothing to say here today.”

He added, “The only thing I would say is that it’s time now to speed up a bit of everything and hopefully we can get it sorted out sooner rather than later.”

Where do you think Carlos Sainz will end up in 2025?

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