Shanghai. Red Bull is in talks with Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz to race in 2025, but Audi has offered him much more, Helmut Marko, motorsports advisor for the energy drink brand, said Thursday.
The 29-year-old Spanish driver will have to leave Ferrari at the end of the season to make way for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, from Mercedes.
Sainz, winner of the race in Australia last month, told reporters at the Chinese Grand Prix on Thursday that all his best options remain open and that it will take some time for him to make a decision.
Sainz has been linked to Red Bull as a possible teammate of triple world champion Max Verstappen, recreating his 2015-16 Toro Rosso lineup, if Mexican Sergio Pérez’s contract is not renewed.
Marko told the Austrian newspaper Small newspaper that Sainz is of interest to you. “We are talking to him, he is having his strongest season in Formula One, but he has a very lucrative offer from Audi that we cannot match or beat,” the Austrian said.
Audi will enter Formula One in 2026, when Switzerland-based Sauber, which has so far failed to score points in four races this season, becomes the German manufacturer’s official team.
Marko said Perez is also having his best season since joining them in 2021.
“If he maintains performances like those in qualifying in Japan, then he is undoubtedly the best option for 2025 at Red Bull,” he said. “He is a worker for the team and now he has also realized that the radically different path he took last year with the set-up was the wrong one. Now the car is closer to Max’s set-up and that gives him aid”.
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– 2024-04-20 12:18:16
