Carlos Sainz rejects the toxic comment Red Bull have made about his relationship with Max Verstappen

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Red Bull passed up the opportunity to sign Carlos Sainz in 2024. They renewed Sergio Perez’s contract instead, only to then release the Mexican at the end of the season.

Perez’s contract extension was announced at the beginning of June, a couple of months before Sainz signed for Williams. The Spaniard had been on the market since February after Ferrari recruited Lewis Hamilton a year in advance.

Sainz was a product of the Red Bull system, having spent his early years at Toro Rosso. The Milton Keynes outfit elected not to reunite him with Max Verstappen, his first-ever F1 teammate.

The team may now regret snubbing a multiple Grand Prix winner. Their second driver crisis has deepened, with Liam Lawson lasting just two races and Yuki Tsunoda only contributing seven points in 10 Grands Prix weekends.

Carlos Sainz insists he gets on well with Max Verstappen

Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Sainz was asked whether his relationship with Verstappen was a barrier to joining Red Bull. There were occasional moments of tension a decade ago, including a race in Singapore where the Dutchman refused an order to let the sister car pass.

But Sainz insists that their rivalry was ‘healthy’. These days, they get on well enough to form a ‘very strong’ partnership.

The 30-year-old says it would be unfair for Red Bull to reject them on this basis. He’s signed a multi-year deal at Williams, with the first renewal option at the end of 2026.

“The only thing I could say is that I genuinely get on well with Max,” he said. “This is what people don’t see from the outside.

“We had a rivalry in our first year in Formula 1 at Toro Rosso, but it was a relatively healthy rivalry in terms of how we used to go about racing. And now we get on really well.

“If that’s the reason, I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want me next to Max, because I think we would actually be a very strong pairing in Formula 1.”

What have Red Bull said about Carlos Sainz’s relationship with Max Verstappen?

Speaking in 2022, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said the atmosphere between Sainz and Verstappen was ‘quite toxic’ (via Red Bulletin). The latter was favoured for a promotion to the top team in 2016.

Sainz left for Renault at the end of the 2017 season, with Marko adding that ‘I couldn’t see a way of keeping him with us’.

One report last year suggested that there was tension between Carlos Sainz Sr and Jos Verstappen, the drivers’ fathers. Perhaps that was the reunion the team were really trying to avoid.

However, it’s since emerged that Verstappen’s camp had no problem with Red Bull signing Sainz. They feel there have been numerous missteps on the other side of the garage.