Carlos Sainz: Max Verstappen pairing at Red Bull would have been 'very strong' had F1 team signed him for 2025
Williams driver Carlos Sainz reflects on being overlooked by Red Bull for this year after being let go by Ferrari; watch every session of the Sprint weekend in Belgium, starting with Practice at 11.30am and Sprint Qualifying at 3.30pm on Friday - live on Sky Sports F1
Wednesday 23 July 2025 19:32, UK
Carlos Sainz believes he would have formed a "very strong" pairing with Max Verstappen at Red Bull, as he admitted he did not understand why they opted not to sign him for this year.
Sainz was a high-profile free agent on the driver market for the first half of last season after the Spaniard lost his seat at Ferrari to Lewis Hamilton for 2025.
But while the four-time race winner was initially linked with either replacing Hamilton at Mercedes or joining Verstappen at Red Bull, neither front-running team offered him a deal, with Sainz ultimately signing for Williams last July on a multi-year term.
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Red Bull instead made an early call to hand Sergio Perez a two-year contract extension, a decision that badly backfield as the Mexican sustained struggles for form over the remainder of last season led to them having to reach a deal with him to leave early.
Liam Lawson - who lasted just the first two races of this season in Red Bull's second car before being demoted back to sister team Racing Bulls - and Yuki Tsunoda have since struggled in the same seat.
One of the reasons speculated at the time as to why Red Bull overlooked the highly-rated Sainz, their former junior driver, was due to supposed tension between a then 20-year-old Spaniard and 17-year-old Verstappen when they were team-mates at Toro Rosso, now Racing Bulls, in their first years of F1 in 2015.
"This is what people have concluded or the way they try to explain it, or to understand it," Sainz told the High Performance Podcast.
"The only thing I can say is I genuinely get on well with Max. This is what people don't see from the outside. We had a rivalry in our first year in Formula 1 in Toro Rosso, but it was a relatively healthy rivalry in terms of him and me the way we used to go about racing.
"And now we get on really well, so 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."
The pair spent all of the 2015 season, and then the first four races of 2016, as Toro Rosso team-mates, before Verstappen was promoted to the senior Red Bull team to replace Daniil Kvyat.
Sainz and Verstappen finished level in their qualifying head-to-head as team-mates, although the Dutchman scored more points in races.
The Spaniard stayed at Toro Rosso for a further 17 months before joining Renault on loan late in the 2017 season. He eventually cut his ties with Red Bull altogether when he signed for McLaren in 2019.
Since Daniel Ricciardo left to replace Sainz at Renault at the end of 2018, Verstappen has had five team-mates in six-and-a-half seasons with Red Bull - who removed team boss Christian Horner a fortnight ago - struggling to find a consistent foil for the four-time world champion and now suffering in the Constructors' Championship as a result.
"I think everyone is having a really tough time being Max's team-mate," acknowledged Sainz.
"I can only say that when I was Max's team-mate, I didn't have this tough time. I was obviously incredibly surprised with how quick he was, with how he's an insane driver.
"He's going to go on to be one of the best ever in history, if he's not already one of the best ever in history. But that first year together since then has given me the confidence to know I can be up against anyone.
"I have been team-mates with Charles (Leclerc), with Lando (Norris), with Nico Hulkenberg. I have been team-mates with very quick guys and probably the best in the sport. And now Alex (Albon), incredibly fast also. It just makes me want to be up against the best still, it hasn't made me go 'no, I don't want [that]'. I know I can take it, and I know I have been successful in the past."
Sainz would have accepted Red Bull offer - but Williams proving 'right environment to thrive'
Given Sainz had established himself as a consistent front-running driver in his four seasons next to Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, winning four races, the 30-year-old admits being overlooked by other top teams with vacant seats for 2025 was "a frustration and a feeling that I was really struggling to put behind" during last year.
And although he admits he would have accepted Red Bull seat to reunite with Verstappen had it been offered beforehand, he believes that in ambitious Williams he has found the right home to "thrive".
"We have both moved on a lot as drivers," said Sainz. "Probably Max has evolved massively as a driver, but also I have. So it's impossible to know and we will probably never know. That's probably not going to happen anymore.
"But I can only tell you if the opportunity would have come I probably would have taken it. Would it have been the right thing for my career or how would life turn out from that point onwards? We will never know so it's not worth discussing, what I know is that I needed also a team that fully backed me.
"I know what my abilities are as a driver and I feel like in that sense Williams has given me the right environment to thrive with all these abilities.
"I think good things are starting to happen also because of that and when you see the evolution of the car, the evolution of the team and everything, I think it's just going to get better because they have given me the right environment."
Sky Sports F1's live Belgian GP schedule
Thursday July 24
1pm: Drivers' Press Conference
Friday July 25
7.55am: F3 Practice
9.05am: F2 Practice
11am: Belgian GP Practice One (session starts at 11.30am)
12.55pm: F3 Qualifying
1.50pm: F2 Qualifying
3pm: Belgian GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 3.30pm)
Saturday July 26
8.10am: F3 Sprint
10am: Belgian GP Sprint (lights out at 11am)
12.20pm: Ted's Sprint Notebook
12.40pm: F2 Sprint
2pm: Belgian GP Qualifying (session starts at 3pm)
5pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday July 27
7.25am: F3 Feature Race
8.55am: F2 Feature Race
10.40am: Porsche Supercup Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Belgian GP build-up*
2pm: THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Chequered flag: Belgian GP reaction*
5pm: Ted's Notebook
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
The 2025 Formula 1 season resumes this weekend with the Belgian Grand Prix as the Sprint format returns, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime.
