Carlos Sainz, from the “toxic” relationship with Max Verstappen to a possible reunion in Red Bull

Carlos Sainz AND Max Verstappen they came hand in hand to the Formula 1. They were boys and had in common being the sons of well-known pilots. But that’s not why they became friends; Instead, Red Bull’s demanding young driver program pitted them against each other and in 2015 Toro Rosso won. The law of the strongest. After 23 races, the Dutchman was promoted to the team in which he would later become three-time world champion, while Carlos Sainz went through Renault, McLaren and Ferrari to become a unemployed pilot.

On February 1st, The 29-year-old from Madrid was unexpectedly left without a job in 2025. That day, it was confirmed that Lewis Hamilton would be Charles Leclerc’s teammate next season. The shock did not have a sporting impact on Sainz; A month later he brought the Prancing Horse to the podium in Bahrain and last Sunday he gave it victory in Melbourne, in the third round of the Formula 1 championship and recovered from an appendicitis operation. “Life is sometimes really beautiful, really beautiful,” he said after toasting with champagne and raising the Australian GP trophy, even if he took away something else: the praise and interest? from Red Bullthe team that trained him as a driver and brought him to F1 in its affiliated team but then closed its doors.

It was 2018, when Daniel Ricciardo decided to move to Renault e Rumors pointed to a Verstappen veto over Sainz. Why? Although Helmut Marko, historic advisor to the Austrian team, said that those rumors were “bullshit” because “Red Bull is the only one to decide on driver pairings”, some time later he also admitted that “The atmosphere between the two when they were at Toro Rosso was a bit toxic”. Nor did the fact of having parents in the pits matter: “That wasn’t a healthy relationship at Toro Rosso: on the one hand there was the intelligent politician Carlos Sainz Senior; on the other, the exciting Jos Verstappen.”

The international press had material to rely on to publish it. Following his promotion to Red Bull in May 2016, Max praised Australian Ricciardo during an interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and revealed that His relationship with Sainz ‘wasn’t so good’. Although he acknowledged that “the situation was different” because at Toro Rosso they both knew that “there was only one vacancy at Red Bull, because Daniel has always done well”.

“Survive? I think I did something more than survive Verstappen as a teammate in 2015, it was very important in my career. Something more than survive the Red Bull program”, said the Spaniard, for his part, in the October 2019. blame Red Bull: “They put us in a cage to fight. Toro Rosso is a development team that evaluates drivers to see if they are ready to join Red Bull. So you constantly have to prove yourself. So the environment was very competitive, but we still got along.”

Ego and battles to get to Red Bull

Like two classmates on a graduation trip, on March 15, 2015 they left The Langham hotel headed to the Melbourne circuit. The Spaniard was driving a white Toyota, while The Dutchman got into the back seat of the car driven by his protectionist father Jos. Overshadowed by a Sebastian Vettel who wore red for the first time and by the participation of McLaren with Honda engines, a minor Verstappen – the youngest driver to debut in F1 – and a Sainz who was said to race only by surname began his adventure in F1 . The Spaniard added two points with his ninth place; The Dutchman completed 32 laps and dropped out.

The year ends with Max ahead of his teammate (49 points against 18) and above all with quite a few clashes that revealed strained relations between the pilots. The most obvious occurred on September 20, at the Singapore Grand Prix, where Verstappen disobeyed team orders and finished eighth, just ahead of Sainz.

“Max, change position.”Xavi Pujolar told him on the radio.

“NO”Verstappen responded bluntly.

“Max, just do it.”the engineer reiterated.

There were no answers; Even on the track there were no movements and Sergio Pérez’s (Force India) seventh place was not in danger because Sainz, with new tyres, was not even able to overtake Verstappen to chase the Mexican.

At the end of the race both spoke to the press. “Max likes the bad boy role a bit and I knew it, but now he’s proven it to me. In any case, my relationship with the team doesn’t change: if they ask me something I’ll do it, I’m a team player,” explained Carlos, who had given up his seat at the Hungarian GP (on 26 July) so that Alonso wouldn’t would have done. Max, jokingly, confessed: “Dad told me if I let Carlos pass he would kick me in the balls.“.

In one of their last races together, in Australia 2016, the bad relationship was even more visible. Verstappen complained over the radio to his team for not obeying his wish to enter the pit lane, which caused him to finish behind Sainz: “The other cars are leaving and you don’t let me overtake Sainz, This is a fucking joke!After finishing ninth, just one place behind the Dutchman, the Spaniard asked journalists: “Did you complain a lot? Well, what are you going to do?”. “Normally I should be a few kilometers ahead of him,” replied the man who was promoted by Red Bull two months later.

Just when this happened, Sainz did not hold back in an interview with El Confidencial and declared: “I think I’m better than Verstappen in everything. How do I compare myself to him? He is an excellent driver and there is no need to explain it to anyone. But honestly, I think I’m better at pretty much everything. In qualifying I’m very fast, even in the race… It’s very difficult to explain, it’s a feeling you have and you can’t get it out of your head.”

From rudeness to return?

For the 2019 World Championship, Christian Horner had two options to replace Daniel Ricciardo: field one of the Toro Rosso drivers or renew the contract of Carlos Sainz, who was on loan at Renault. The decision was to promote Pierre Gasly -then replaced by Alex Albon halfway through the season-, the Spaniard moved to McLaren taking advantage of the gap left free by his compatriot Fernando Alonso.

Always competitive, Horner is now looking for the best partner for 2025. Almost since he landed in 2021, Sergio Pérez has been earmarked to leave the team. Only last season, after an overwhelming 2023 for Red Bull with 21 wins in 22 races, Checo managed to finish second. That Grand Prix the team missed was the one in Singapore, where the winner was Sainz, which would have made it a precious jewel.

“Carlos is the only driver to beat Red Bull in the last year, so he seems to be our nemesis”, observed the English team leader. “I think we want to form the best partnership possible at Red Bull Racing and sometimes you also have to look externally. In Australia a very fast and unemployed driver won the race. “With a performance like that you can’t rule out any possibilities, so I think you just have to take your time to decide. Checo has also had a great start to the season, so we’re not in any desperate rush,” he added in Motorsport.

There are more options than Carlos, especially from members of the structure (Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda and also Liam Lawson) but the fact that Horner has considered looking at the driver market fuels Sainz’s dream of staying in a top team after having left Ferrari. “I will maximize this stronger team that we have built together this year to try to get more podiums and wins and see where I go next.“, said someone who has already participated in 188 grands prix and stood on the podium 20 times, three of which in first place.