Behind Max Verstappen, the 2024 Formula One season is shaping up nicely. Ferrari and McLaren look set to battle for second place, with podiums the objective and even the odd race win or two is not out of the question.
Mercedes for the third year in succession have failed to solve the conundrum set by the FIA ground effect car design regulations and look to be locked in a battle with Fernando Alonso and his Aston Martin for P4 in the constructors’ championship.
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Meanwhile the driver market is hotting up with Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso agreeing multi-year contracts which still leaves on of the best drivers on the grid – Carlos Sainz – without a drive beyond this season.
The Spaniard has been linked with the new Audi project and reportedly the German brand have made him a big money offer. Yet Sainz aged 29 is in his prime and the only non-Red Bull driver to win races last year and it is questionable whether a move to Audi will see him in a competitive car for a number of years.
Sauber’s technical director James Key who is overseeing the integration between the Swiss based team and Audi stated earlier this year, the programme is only likely to be complete towards the end of 2026.
“I think ultimately, we’re probably not going to be the final product that we’re aiming for until about ’27 time really, because there is a lot to do,” said Key.
“But we’ll be in far better shape as we approach ’26. And that will give us the opportunity to take the step forward we need to.”
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Marko says Sainz talks ongoing
The fact that out of a job Carlos has not yet signed for Audi speaks volumes and the Spaniard yet retains hopes of an offer from either Mercedes or Red Bull Racing.
At the recent Chinese Grand Prix, Dr. Helmut Marko claimed the Red Bull team had been talking to Carlos Sainz but implied the Audi had made a big money offer to the Spaniard. Marko told Austria’s Kleine Zeitung newspaper, “We’re talking to him, he’s having his strongest season in Formula One,” the Austrian said. “But he has a very lucrative offer from Audi that we can’t match or beat.”
Yet if Carlos Sainz is holding out for a possible offer from Red Bull, he will almost certainly have to wait given both Christian Horner and Dr. Marko have stated they are in no rush to finalise their driver lineup for 2025.
Speaking of Sergio Perez who he has own the past been critical of, Dr. Marko is confident he will remain with the team next year.
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“If he maintains these performances like those in qualifying in Japan, then he is certainly the best option for 2025 at Red Bull,” he said in China.
“He is a worker for the team and has now also realised that the radically different path he took last year with set-up was the wrong one. Now the car is closer to Max’s set-up and that helps him.”
Andreas Seidl who left his role as team principal at McLaren in 2022 is set to head up the new Audi F1 entry, and ahead of the Miami Grand Prix he has taken exception with the notion spread by Dr. Marko, that Audi are throwing silly money at drivers.
When asked about the Austrian’s comments Seidl explained: “Our approach is clearly not to motivate drivers or other employees to come to us with huge amounts of money.
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“We basically have the financial resources of a top team, but we really think about how we can use every franc or euro sensibly and efficiently. We want to attract people who want to be part of this journey and accompany Audi’s entry into Formula 1.”
That said, Audi set Sainz a deadline of the end of April to ‘take or leave’ the offer they placed on the table. Now having signed Nico Hulkenberg it appears Seidl and Audi are prepared to give Carlos more time to make his decision.
Sainz clearly won’t be bounced and is waiting to see how the Mercedes/Red Bull driver recruitment plays out. Yet with Mercedes keen to promote their star junior driver Kimi Antonelli, replacing Lewis Hamilton with a more senior driver will be merely see a one year offer from Brackley while Antonelli gets another year’s experience.
It will all simply come down to either Red Bull deciding to replace Perez with Sainz, or Carlos will have the Audi backup plan. Yet should Horner et al decide to recruit Sainz alongside Verstappen, Audi have an alternative solution in Perez.
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Perez good choice for Audi
The Mexican driver brings a huge amount of experience with him and now ranks inside the top 10 F1 drivers for race starts (262), winning six Grand Prix and claiming 39 podiums along the way.
Another option for Audi would be Esteban Ocon who may be looking for a way out of Alpine after their woeful pointless start to the 2024 campaign. The Frenchman has 138 F1 starts to his name and a Grand Prix win under his belt from the race in Hungary in 2021.
Ocon is also thought to be a candidate to replace Hamilton for a season given he is still managed by the Brackley based team. Clearly from Esteban’s perspective a multi-year deal with Audi would trump any Mercedes offer and this leaves Toto with the headache of filling Hamilton’s seat for a single season.
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Horner dismisses Marko claims ahead of Miami G
Just when it looked like it was safe to go out in the Formula One paddock, Christian Horner is now forced to deal with questions created by Red Bull’s ‘advisor’ – Dr. Helmut Marko. The 81 year old Austrian was a personnel friend of the Red Bull empire founding billionaire and despite not being employed by the F1 team, Marko has always had the freedom to speak as he wishes on all things Red Bull and F1.
The boss of the Red Bull team is no stranger in having to deal with the fall out from certain Helmut Marko comments yet even in the most trying of circumstances Horner has sought not to criticise the team’s ‘advisor’…. READ MORE
