Sainz and his administration have been engaged in discussions with each F1 group that has a gap for subsequent season when he will likely be changed at Ferrari by Lewis Hamilton.
Till Fernando Alonso re-signed with Aston Martin final week, this left Sainz weighing up doable choices at eight squads, as beforehand solely Ferrari and McLaren had their 2025 line-ups locked in.
This choice is headlined by the potential of Sainz going to Crimson Bull as a alternative for Sergio Perez or if Max Verstappen makes a shock alternative to depart F1’s present greatest squad on account of the continuing Crimson Bull administration battle and the Christian Horner scandal.
Crimson Bull, by way of Marko, was publicly courting the Sainz camp at Suzuka final outing and there Marko additionally claimed “Audi is making stress” on the 2025 driver market.
This follows the long-held understanding that Audi had been eyeing signing Sainz forward of its F1 entry in 2026 with its Sauber takeover, because the 29-year-old already had hyperlinks to the producer via his father’s Dakar Rally outings in its RS Q e-tron equipment since 2022, together with victory within the 2024 occasion.
However forward of this weekend’s returning Chinese language Grand Prix, Marko added one other intriguing ingredient to probably the most high-profile confirmed 2025 driver contract saga to this point early on this foolish season.
In an interview with Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, Marko mentioned of Sainz: “We’re speaking to him, he is having his strongest season in F1, however he has a really profitable supply from Audi that we will not match or beat.
Liam Lawson, Reserve Driver, Visa Money App RB F1 Crew, with Helmut Marko, Guide, Crimson Bull Racing, Peter Bayer, CEO, RB F1 Crew
Picture by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
“However we all know him from the Toro Rosso days, even again then he drove with Max [in 2015 and early 2016].
“But it surely actually harm him again then once we backed Verstappen at Crimson Bull and never him.”
The ultimate line is a reference to Crimson Bull quickly selling Verstappen to its senior group in early 2016, with Sainz happening to depart the Crimson Bull fold for Renault late within the 2017 marketing campaign – one thing the now Ferrari driver pushed for.
Elsewhere within the interview, Marko revealed that Verstappen publicly backing him in the course of the numerous twists within the Crimson Bull administration battle early in 2024 had been “a very massive signal of loyalty” that he “completely do not take with no consideration, particularly at the moment”.
Marko additionally sought to make clear current rumours relating to the driving force line-up at RB given Daniel Ricciardo’s poor begin to the marketing campaign and his profitable 2023 harm alternative, Liam Lawson, nonetheless with no full-time F1 drive.
Concerning reviews of a doable Ricciardo/Lawson in-season swap which have emerged within the New Zealand and Italian press in current weeks, Marko mentioned: “With Liam Lawson as a reserve driver, we clearly have a powerful driver within the group who’s contractually entitled to drive for one more group if he does not get a cockpit with us in 2025,” he continued.
“On this respect, it will in fact be thrilling for us if we may see him in Components 1 this 12 months to get an excellent clearer image.
“But it surely’s a fancy challenge, so we’ll must see how issues progress.”