Helmut Marko has taken the 2024 F1 silly season up a notch! He has confirmed that Red Bull is considering Carlos Sainz as Sergio Perez’s replacement for 2025. But the demand for the Ferrari driver’s services has become unusually high amongst F1 teams. And Audi, who is yet to even step foot in F1, has offered him a “lucrative” deal that even reigning champions Red Bull cannot afford.

As per reports, Audi has been ‘pushing’ Sainz for an answer on the post-2024 contract. But the Spaniard has been delaying the decision as even Mercedes has offered him a 2-year deal. Notably, Sainz was even rumored to be in talks with Christian Horner for a 2025 Red Bull seat. Though there was no concrete evidence of those talks, Helmut Marko has shockingly confirmed those reports.

“We are talking to him, he is having his strongest season in Formula 1,” Marko told the Austrian website Kleine Zeitung. “But he has a very lucrative offer from Audi that we can’t match or beat. We still know him from the Toro Rosso days, even back then he drove with Max. But it really hurt him back then when we at Red Bull relied on Verstappen and not on him,” Marko further revealed.

Surprisingly, Marko’s statements come only days after Sergio Perez confirmed that his renewal should be wrapped up within this month. For Sainz, however, the grass on his side is much greener. But he remains cautious of prematurely leaking any information to the media.

Carlos Sainz diplomatically dodges contract question in China

The Thursday press conferences before the Chinese GP have concluded. Naturally, Fernando Alonso’s contract renewal and Carlos Sainz’s uncertain future were the reporter’s favorite topics of discussion. When Sainz was asked about the implications of Alonso’s renewal for his future, he had to be cautious in his response.

“For sure, all my best options are still open, which I think is a positive thing and is something that obviously requires a bit of time, given the situation of the market,” the Ferrari driver told the media in Shanghai, before adding, “I think it’s going to take some time for everything to make their own mind [up] and their own decisions, but the good options are still open.”

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He then emphasized how there is nothing much about his contract negotiations to tell the world about. “There hasn’t been barely any progress over the last couple of weeks, so there’s nothing really to update you on,” he concluded.

Fans and reporters should probably expect such answers till Sainz and his future team make the official announcement. Till then, it will continue to be in speculation-nation.