Christian Horner confirms Carlos Sainz interest as Red Bull plan made clear

19 April 2024 , 13:50

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Carlos Sainz has held talks with Red Bull over becoming Max Verstappen's team-mate (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Christian Horner confirmed Red Bull talks with Carlos Sainz and claimed the Spaniard is "targeting" the seat currently held by Sergio Perez.

Sainz is leaving Ferrari at the end of the year after the Italians decided to replace him with Lewis Hamilton. And his form since that move was announced has been superb - he has a win and two more podiums to show for his three outings so far in 2024.

As a result, he is playing a key role in the driver market which is already far more active than usual at this time of year. Sainz has several potential options, but Horner thinks Perez's Red Bull seat is the one the Spaniard wants.

He said: "As you can tell with the level of interest that we have had from other drivers in our seats, for a driver of Carlos' calibre, he wants to be in a winning car. And whilst we have one seat available for next year, his target, inevitably, is that seat.

"But his problem is that Checo [Perez] is in that seat and he's doing a really good job so for us as a team. It's a luxury situation but one that we don't need to rush and we'll take our time to consider the options."

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Horner's words come after team adviser Helmut Marko said Red Bull had been speaking with the 29-year-old - but claimed that newcomers Audi had already made an offer that could not be matched. "We're talking to him. He's having his strongest season in Formula 1," the Austrian told Kleine Zeitung.

"[Sainz] has a very lucrative offer from Audi that we can't match or beat. But we still know him from the Toro Rosso days, even back then he drove with Max. It really hurt him back then when we at Red Bull relied on Verstappen and not on him."

Regarding his own future, Sainz said: "For sure, all my best options are still open which is a positive thing and something that requires a bit of time, given the situation of the market.

"It's going to take some time for everyone to make up their own minds and make their own decisions, but the good options are still open. There has been barely any progress over the last couple of weeks so there's nothing really to update you on.

"Obviously, it gets to a point where the sooner everything develops, the better - at the same time, it's not like it's affecting my performances at all this year. But the earlier you take the situation out of your head, the better. But it requires time and some decision making so, as I said last week, we'll let that happen and see how things progress."

Daniel Moxon