21 hours Ago By Jamie Woodhouse
While Red Bull overlooked the available Carlos Sainz, it turns out that his route into the team is not closed after all. A former member of the Red Bull junior team who graduated to a Toro Rosso F1 drive, Sainz was linked with a move to Red Bull after the pre-F1 2024 announcement that he had lost his seat at Ferrari to seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton from the following season. However, despite the speculation linking him with the likes of Red Bull and Hamilton’s former team Mercedes, Sainz was unable to secure a drive with a leading team, the Spaniard ultimately penning a multi-year Williams deal.
Meanwhile, Mercedes promoted their academy driver Kimi Antonelli into an F1 2025 seat, Red Bull also looking within and promoting Liam Lawson after Sergio Perez departed at the end of the season. For the good of the Red Bull Junior Team, Horner said the decision was made to move a driver within their ranks up to the main Red Bull team, but looking further down the line, Horner has made sure to keep the door open for Sainz. As part of the Red Bull reshuffle, Isack Hadjar also received a promotion to Racing Bulls after his runner-up finish in the F2 Championship, the Frenchman set to partner Yuki Tsunoda.
“Carlos is a great driver, and options still remain open with him in the future,” said Horner as per RacingNews365 . “He was considered, and in many respects, you’d say there was a real logic [to signing] Carlos, but we made the choice to look internally and put belief in the junior programme. “That attracts more juniors because they see a pathway to Formula 1, and if we’d gone outside the programme, that is not sending the right message, because there is so much competition now for young drivers, even at the age of 13 or 14 between the teams.
“That is healthy because it is investing in young talent, but by joining the Red Bull programme, you see a clear pathway that if you deliver, pretty much guarantees you’ll get to Formula 1. “We would always prefer to give the opportunity to the progression of the junior programme.” 👉 F1 2025 driver line-up: Who is confirmed for the 2025 grid? 👉 F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the F1 2025 grid? Another team which Sainz held discussions with was Alpine, though the team’s advisor Flavio Briatore recently revealed that Sainz’s desire for freedom to leave for a leading outfit if they came in with an offer saw talks break down.
“Either he believes in our program or he doesn’t,” Briatore told Auto Motor und Sport . “I don’t need a driver who costs me a lot of money and is only concerned about being able to go to another team if the opportunity arises.” At Williams, Sainz will be team-mate to Alex Albon, with Franco Colapinto dropping to Williams reserve after failing to secure an F1 2025 seat.
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