Marko: We can't match Audi offer for Sainz, Perez best for 2025
F1 NewsThursday, 18 April 2024 at 15:52
Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko revealed there are talks with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz about a drive in 2025 but Audi has offered him a lucrative deal the Formula 1 World Champions cannot match, leaving rejuvenated Sergio Perez as their best option says the Doctor.
Sainz, 29, must leave Ferrari at the end of the season to make way for Mercedes' seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, who will partner Carlos Sainz at Maranello.
On Thursday, race winner at the Australian Grand Prix last month, Sainz told reporters ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend that all his best options remained open and it would take some time to reach a decision.
Sainz has been suggested as a possible teammate for triple world champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull, recreating their 2015-16 Toro Rosso lineup, if Sergio Perez does not have his contract renewed. Increasingly unlikely as the Mexican veteran has upped his game this season.
Marko told Austria's Kleine Zeitung newspaper that Sainz was of interest: "We're talking to him, he's having his strongest season in Formula 1. But he has a very lucrative offer from Audi that we can't match or beat."
Perez looking like the best option for Red Bull in 2025
Audi are entering F1 in 2026 when Swiss-based Sauber, so far without a point in four races this season, becomes the German manufacturer's factory team. Notably, the German manufacturer's F1 team principal - Andreas Seidl - has worked with Sainz at McLaren, and the admiration and respect between the pair is reportedly mutual.
Marko said the experienced Perez was also having his best season since joining them in 2021: "If he maintains these performances like those in qualifying in Japan, then he is certainly the best option for 2025 at Red Bull.
"He is a worker for the team and has now also realised 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 helps him," added Marko.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo has also been in the frame for a possible return to the main Red Bull team but has yet to assert himself at the awkwardly renamed VCARB the outfit previously known as AlphaTauri and Toro Rosso.
Marko pointed out that so far Yuki Tsunoda had Ricciardo "under control" and added: "The challenge for him (Ricciardo) was that he clearly had to be faster than Yuki if he wanted to have any hope of winning the seat at Red Bull. That hasn't been the case so far, even if, as I said, it was close. We'll see how this develops."
GRANDPRIX247 Editorial duo - Paul Velasco and Jad Mallak - discuss Sainz as an option for Mercedes in 2025. Watch the NewsDesk Unplugged episode>>>
Big Question: Where next for Carlos Sainz?
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