Helmut Marko responds to rumors about Carlos Sainz with important A Red Bull competitor was disqualified
Due to Lewis Hamilton’s unexpected decision to switch from Mercedes to Ferrari, Sainz is currently without a seat for the 2025 season. With Sainz often associated with Audi, who will take over the current Sauber squad in 2026, during the past 12 months, the two-time Grand Prix winner should see a lot of interest in his services for 2025.
With Max Verstappen at Red Bull, might Carlos Sainz make a nice combination?
Sainz started his Formula One career as Verstappen’s Toro Rosso teammate in 2015. Since Sergio Perez’s current contract is set to expire at the end of 2024, it is also theoretically feasible for Sainz to rejoin Red Bull.
Following an intense 18-month stint as Verstappen’s teammate in 2019–20 before making room for Perez, reports earlier this month stated Red Bull had extended a first-refusal option to Alex Albon with the intention of re-signing the Williams driver on a three-year contract in 2026.
Marko has ruled out pursuing Albon before 2026 and thinks Red Bull’s schedule won’t coincide with Sainz’s, saying the team will try to finalize their lineup “after the summer break.” He made these remarks in an interview with the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
With a contract that expires in 2025, Alberton is not a problem for us, he stated. In addition, Sainz most likely wishes to decide before we do. With five of Perez’s six career victories coming in Red Bull colors since moving to Milton Keynes in 2021, Marko has not ruled out giving Perez a contract extension.
In 2023, Perez had the best start to a season ever, taking the lead in two of the first four races in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan. However, Perez’s performance declined significantly as Verstappen won the championship with ease for the third time in a row.
“Checo has to perform consistently,” Marko continues, seeing consistency as the key to Perez’s aspirations of landing a new deal. “His ability to drive at Verstappen’s level is obviously lacking at times. His inclusion in 2025 is certain if he wins one or two races and finishes second in the World Championship.
Beginning at the Bahrain Grand Prix are the six greatest Formula One mysteries to be solved.
The Bahrain Grand Prix is coming up soon, testing is already complete, and in a few days, the new F1 2024 vehicles will be driven aggressively through Sakhir.
Testing is notoriously a fairly inaccurate indicator of precisely where each team stands in the standings, with engine configurations and fuel loads being kept under wraps. Nevertheless, we were able to determine who might or might not appear to be the fastest of them.
Following the conclusion of testing, there was a lot of excitement in the paddock, but before this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, here’s what we should know.
With the RB20, how far ahead does Red Bull stand?
After testing, it was generally agreed that Red Bull possesses the fastest package once more with the RB20, even though a highly successful design concept had undergone significant modifications.
So, how much is the only question.Max Verstappen led the field by a full second on the first day of testing, so Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko played down expectations. However, the full extent of Red Bull’s likely advantage will be on display in qualifying on Friday. Red Bull’s advantage is expected to be around three tenths per lap.
Instead, who knows—we might even be surprised by someone?
In the crowded pursuit group, who is in the front? Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, and Aston Martin appear to be in the race to be the “best of the rest,” much like they were the previous season. However, each of these teams has distinctive features on their vehicles that they think will give them an advantage.
While Mercedes has called attention to the distinctive approach they have taken to their front wing design this year, McLaren acknowledges that Bahrain has never been their finest circuit to suit their car. A great performance this weekend would auger well for their season ahead.
Though they didn’t demonstrate much in terms of overall pace during their three trouble-free days of racing in Bahrain, Aston Martin seems to have the potential to challenge early in the SF-24.
After mentioning how much better their vehicle is to drive this year, both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc described the Scuderia as “strong favorites” to finish with Red Bull this weekend. Daniel Ricciardo made this claim.
The season is still a long way off, and depending on the circuit, there may be a lot of changes to the sequence of competition.
Following their extensive redesign, where will RB sit?
Given that RB will be playing closer for Red Bull this season and that he will be rebranding from AlphaTauri, this is maybe one of the greatest questions in the paddock.
Though the team has acknowledged that they are hoping to target the front of the midfield this year if they can get there, Ricciardo attempted to downplay expectations surrounding Red Bull’s sister team despite acknowledging he had a “decent car” to drive.
When it comes to their time as Minardi, the Faenza team has never been higher than sixth in the Constructors’ Championship. However, with the strength of the leading cars, it will be difficult for them to place in the top five this year.
When it comes to the midfield, will the drivers have a significant impact?
It should be possible for the drivers to contribute significantly behind the wheel this time around, considering how crowded the bottom half of the field got at the end of the previous season.
This year, several drivers have already expressed the significance of even a single tenth or two on a qualifying lap. If that holds true, exciting Saturdays and unpredictable Sundays with the possibility of all ten teams competing for points are in store.
Have the tyre issues that plagued Haas last season now been resolved?
The primary focus of Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu’s team’s testing in Bahrain will be to better understand the team’s long-term pace and address the tyre degradation issues that derailed their prospects in the previous season.
The amount that the VF-23 lost in race trim was concerning, even though it repeatedly demonstrated that it was a fast car over a single lap.
“We prioritized improving our race performance and race tyre degradation management as it was our primary weakness last year,” Komatsu stated in the lead-up to the weekend. “First and foremost, that was the overall objective of pre-season testing.”
As a whole, I believe we succeeded in our initial goals of comprehending tire performance, directing the aero team’s future development strategy, and approving qualifying performance and dependability.
Our approach going forward, in my opinion, will be to continue working on qualifying after concentrating on race performance during testing.
We can tweak that because we knew we wouldn’t race in P8 last year, even though we were able to qualify for it. There will be one issue on everyone’s mind this weekend, despite the Haas camp’s encouraging statements as they attempt to find a solution.
Is there anybody this year who can stop Max Verstappen?
perhaps the most enigmatic of all. Verstappen finished the 2023 season on a seven-race winning streak; the Bahrain Grand Prix will be the biggest indication of whether he can just pick up where he left off.
When he was in sync with his last two cars, as we witnessed last year and the year before, almost nothing was able to stand in his way, so if that’s the case, the rest of the field should probably be scared of their chances of fighting for the World Championship.
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