Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton gave us the first shock ahead of the 2024 silly season when they announced their partnership for 2025. A partnership that yielded almost $20 billion for the Scuderia. Carlos Sainz, who was, at the time, busy negotiating his contract extension with the Scuderia, found himself on the sidelines. And considering how the Spaniard had performed over the last 3 seasons, Frederic Vasseur was right to say that it was one of the hardest choices of his career to let Sainz go. And whatever initial doubts Ferrari might have had would have been amplified after Carlos Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix in the most commanding fashion.

It’s no secret that Ferrari had been chasing Lewis Hamilton for some years. And the best time for Ferrari to have gotten him onboard was in 2021 when Sebastian Vettel left the team. However, at the time, Hamilton was fully committed to Mercedes and had little interest in any other team. And why would he? He was on a 4 consecutive championship streak at the time. And so Ferrari had to look somewhere else and they secured the services of Carlos Sainz in ’21.

And in all honesty, Sainz has done a pretty good job alongside Ferrari protegee Charles Leclerc. In his very first season in the red, Sainz beat the Monegasque driver fair and square. And while 2022 was a bit of a low point, with Leclerc scoring 50+ points above Sainz, the Spaniard brought that gap down to just 6 points in 2023. And not to forget, he was, in 2023, and remains to be the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race in over 21 Grands Prix. So the obvious question is, why let go of such a great driver?

In his recent live stream, Former Ferrari boss, Peter Windsor, made it clear that it was a bizarre move motivated by things like money and image, things outside of pure motor racing. “He’s [Carlos Sainz] doing a really good job, there’s no reason for him to be leaving that team,” said Peter. “He’s a perfect compliment, I wouldn’t even use the word teammate to Charles Leclerc and it’s all going to go for no reason really.“

“And Ferrari signing Lewis [Hamilton] at the back end of Lewis’s career because it’s incredibly good for business, really good for the image, really good for the share price… I suppose they wouldn’t have been able to tick every one of those boxes with Carlos Sainz. But this is where motor racing and what is right about Formula 1 gets completely swamped and taken over by other things… But why did Ferrari do that? That’s the bizarre thing. They got this great combination of drivers and they’re splitting it up. So I don’t know what to say about it.”

There’s little doubt that Sainz’s recent performances in Bahrain and Australia will make him a top priority for other teams who are looking for a driver change in 2025.

Carlos Sainz is now a legitimate option for Red Bull Racing

Sainz’s impressive performance on the track has caught the attention of Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner. Horner, who previously joked about Sainz being their “nemesis,“ hinted at the possibility of considering him for Red Bull’s second seat after the Australian Grand Prix.

While talking to the media about the prospects for Max Verstappens‘s teammate in 2025, Horner acknowledged the talent of Yuki Tsunoda, who had a brilliant 7th place finish in Melbourne, but also hinted at the need to explore options beyond their current pool of drivers. He said, “Yuki’s a very quick driver, we know that. But we want to field the best pairing that we can at Red Bull Racing…”

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He also praised Sainz for his win, saying, “You’ve had a very fast unemployed driver win the race so the market is reasonably fluid with certain drivers.” When asked if he would consider bringing Carlos Sainz back into the Red Bull family, Horner said, “Based on a performance like that, you couldn’t rule any possibility out.”

Charles Leclerc: “[Carlos] Sainz Beats Me and Then I Push to Beat Him”

Could we see Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz reunited at Red Bull once again in 2025?