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Carlos Sainz thinks he would have formed a “very strong” couple with Max Verstappen to Red Bull, because he admitted that he did not understand why they chose not to sign it for this year.
Sainz was a high -level free agent on the driver’s market for the first half of last season after the Spaniard lost his seat in Ferrari against Lewis Hamilton for 2025.
But while the quadruple winner of the race was initially linked to his replacement from Hamilton to Mercedes or to join Verstappen to Red Bull, no leading team offered him an agreement, Sainz finally signing for Williams last July for a multi -year mandate.
Red Bull made an early call to give Sergio Perez a two -year contract extension, a decision that the rear field, while Mexican, had trouble training during last season, led them to conclude an agreement with him to go early.
Liam Lawson – which only lasted the first two races of this season in the second Red Bull car before being demoted on Sister Team Racing Bulls – and Yuki Tsunoda have since struggled in the same seat.
One of the reasons supposed at the time why Red Bull neglected the highly classified sainz, their former junior driver, was due to a supposed tension between a 20 -year -old Spaniard and Verstappen 17 years old when they were teammates in Toro Rosso, now during the race, during their first years of F1 in 2015.
“This is what people have concluded or the way they try to explain it or understand it,” said Sainz High performance podcast.
Carlos Sainz de Williams and Max Verstappen from Red Bull in the conversation during the 2025 season
“The only thing I can say is that I really get along with Max. This is what people do not see from the outside. We had a rivalry in our first year in Formula 1 Toro Rosso, but it was a relatively healthy rivalry in terms of him and me as we did.
“And now we get along very well, so if that’s why I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want me next to Max because I think we would actually be a very strong twinning in Formula 1.”
The pair spent the entire 2015 season, then the first four races of 2016, as teammates of Toro Rosso, before Verstappen was promoted to the senior team of Red Bull to replace Daniil Kvyat.
Sainz and Verstappen finished the level of their qualified head to head as a teammates, although the Dutch has scored more points in the races.
The Spaniard remained in Toro Rosso for an additional 17 months before joining Renault on loan at the end of the 2017 season. He finally reduced his links with Red Bull when he signed for McLaren in 2019.
Since Daniel Ricciardo left to replace Sainz in Renault at the end of 2018, Verstappen had five teammates in six and a half seasons with Red Bull – who withdrew the boss of the Christian Horner team a fortnight – fighting to find a coherent alume for the quarter of the world champion and who now suffers in the manufacturers’ championship.
“I think everyone has trouble being a teammate of Max,” said Sainz.
“I can only say that when I was a teammate of Max, I did not have this difficult period. I was obviously incredibly surprised at the speed with which he was, with the way he is a crazy driver.
“It will be one of the best in history, if it is not already one of the best in history. But this first year together since then gave me the confidence to know that I can face anyone.
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We take a look at some of the best moments of Formula 1 of Carlos Sainz before his move in 2025 in Williams
“I have been teammates with Charles (Leclerc), with Lando (Norris), with Nico Hulkenberg. I have been a teammate with very fast guys and probably the best of sport. And now Alex (Albon), incredibly fast too. It just makes me want to face the best way, it didn’t make me go” I don’t want to (I don’t want to (I don’t want to (I don’t want to (I don’t want to (I don’t want to (I don’t want it.
Sainz would have accepted Red Bull’s offer – but Williams proving the “good environment to prosper”
Since Sainz had established himself as a constant leading driver in his four seasons next to Charles Leclerc in Ferrari, winning four races, the 30 -year -old admits having been neglected by other high -level teams with vacant seats for 2025 was “a frustration and a feeling that I really struggled” during last year.
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Williams pilot, Carlos Sainz, did the lie detector test – and you might be surprised by some of the results!
And although he admitted that he would have accepted the Red Bull seat to find Verstappen if he had been offered beforehand, he thinks that in the ambitious Williams, he found the good home to “prosper”.
“We both evolved as a driver,” said Sainz. “Probably Max has evolved massively as a driver, but also I did. It is therefore impossible to know and we will probably never know. This will probably not happen.
“But I can only tell you that if the opportunity would have come, I would probably have taken it. Would have been the right thing for my career or how would life happen from that moment? We will never know, so it is not worth chatting, what I know is that I needed a team that fully supported me.
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Carlos Sainz led her Williams around the new piece of Madrid, which will host the Spanish Grand Prix of the 2026 season
“I know what my abilities are as a driver and I have the impression that in this sense, Williams gave me the right environment to prosper with all these capacities.
“I think good things are starting to happen too because of this and when you see the evolution of the car, the evolution of the team and everything, I think it will be better because they have given me the right environment.”
Sky Sports F1 live Belgian GP Belgian
Thursday July 24
1 p.m.: Pilot press conference
Friday July 25
7:55 am: F3 Practical
9:05 am: F2 Practical
11 am: Belgian GP Practice One (the session starts at 11:30 am)
12:55 p.m.: F3 Qualification
1:50 p.m.: F2 Qualification
3 p.m.: Belgian GP Sprint Qualify (the session starts at 3.30 p.m.)
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Go back to some of the most dramatic moments over the years at the Belgian Grand Prix
Saturday July 26
8:10 am: Sprint F3
10 am: Belgian GP sprint (bright at 11 a.m.)
12:20 p.m.: Ted sprint notebook
12:40 p.m.: F2 Sprint
2 p.m.: Belgian GP Qualify (the session starts at 3 p.m.)
5 p.m.: Ted’s qualification book
Sunday July 27
7:25 am: F3 functionalities race
8:55 am: F2 functionality breed
10:40 am: Porsche Supercup Race
12:30 p.m.: Grand Prix Sunday: Belgian GP Build-Up *
2 p.m.: The Belgian Grand Prix *
4 p.m.: Checkered flag: Belgian GP reaction *
5 p.m.: Ted’s notebook
*Live on the main event of Sky Sports
The Formula 1 2025 season resumes this weekend with the Belgian Grand Prix while the Sprint format returns, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with now – no contract, cancel at any time.
