{"id":370359,"date":"2025-08-24T18:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/370359\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T18:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:25:13","slug":"christian-horner-had-a-very-aggressive-plan-b-to-sign-27-podium-driver-if-max-verstappen-left-red-bull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/370359\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Horner had a \u2018very aggressive\u2019 Plan B to sign 27-podium driver if Max Verstappen left Red Bull"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Red Bull Racing are facing their most turbulent season since joining Formula 1 20 years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christian Horner<\/a> was in charge at Red Bull\u2019s<\/a> first race on the grid in Australia in 2005, but lost his job after the British Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Horner lost the backing of the Thai owners<\/a>, and with the Austrian side of the Red Bull business looking to go in a new direction, Laurent Mekies<\/a> was appointed.<\/p>\n

However, the underlying issue throughout this season has been the threat of Max Verstappen<\/a> potentially moving on.<\/p>\n\nPosition<\/td>\nDrivers’ Championship<\/td>\nPointsPts<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n1<\/td>\n <\/td>\n284<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2<\/td>\n <\/td>\n275<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n3<\/td>\n <\/td>\n187<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n4<\/td>\n <\/td>\n172<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n5<\/td>\n <\/td>\n151<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n6<\/td>\n <\/td>\n109<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n7<\/td>\n <\/td>\n64<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n8<\/td>\n <\/td>\n54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n9<\/td>\n <\/td>\n37<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n10<\/td>\n <\/td>\n27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Verstappen has won four drivers\u2019 championships<\/a> on the bounce; however, it was evident last year that Red Bull were losing their place at the top of the sport.<\/p>\n

This year has confirmed those fears, with the Dutchman nearly 100 points behind leader Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n

Verstappen was heavily linked with joining Mercedes<\/a>, and in case he moved on, Horner needed a backup plan.<\/p>\n

He was eyeing two drivers in particular, but journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm believes Horner was hatching a \u2018very aggressive\u2019 plan to steal Carlos Sainz<\/a> from Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/strong>: All to know on sacked Red Bull team principal Christian Horner with net worth<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ChristianPhoto by Bryn Lennon \u2013 Formula 1\/Formula 1 via Getty ImagesChristian Horner hatched \u2018very aggressive\u2019 plan to sign Carlos Sainz if Max Verstappen left Red Bull<\/p>\n

Mitchell-Malm was speaking on The Race F1 Podcast about Red Bull\u2019s driver plans and said: \u201cI know that the one place where Sainz was on the radar was Christian Horner\u2019s Red Bull.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that Sainz was part of a very, very aggressive sort of Verstappen plan B, basically, that Horner quite liked the idea of.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich was, well, if Verstappen\u2019s gone, you\u2019ve got a load of money and you\u2019ve got no potential tension or anything like that to worry about.<\/p>\n

\"FerrariPhoto by Vince Mignott\/MB Media\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, the idea of them paying a load of money to extract Carlos Sainz, who they could have got for free last year, not for free, but, he was a free agent, they had to pay him a salary, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo after Sainz and George Russell, because obviously Verstappen, if he left Red Bull, he\u2019d going to Mercedes. So I feel like Sainz was on the Red Bull radar.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/strong>: Williams star Carlos Sainz\u2019s life outside F1 from full name, girlfriend and height<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz makes decision on Williams contract exit clause after tricky 2025 season<\/p>\n

Sainz was one of the stars of the 2024 F1 season, despite knowing throughout the campaign that he was about to be replaced by Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari.<\/p>\n

His victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix was imperious, dominating qualifying and navigating Verstappen with ease to take the fourth win and 27th podium of his Formula 1 career.<\/p>\n

Sainz has struggled at times since joining Williams<\/a>, and while there have been moments of brilliance, he\u2019s currently 38 points behind teammate Alex Albon.<\/p>\n

Team principal James Vowles was delighted to secure the Spaniard\u2019s signature when he also had interest from Alpine and Sauber, and will still have full faith in the 30-year-old.<\/p>\n\nTEAM<\/strong><\/td>\nDRIVER 1<\/strong><\/td>\nDRIVER 2<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAlpine<\/td>\nPierre Gasly<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAston Martin<\/td>\nFernando Alonso<\/td>\nLance Stroll<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAudi<\/td>\nGabriel Bortoleto<\/td>\nNico Hulkenberg<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nCadillac<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nFerrari<\/td>\nCharles Leclerc<\/td>\nLewis Hamilton<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nHaas<\/td>\nEsteban Ocon<\/td>\nOliver Bearman<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMcLaren<\/td>\nLando Norris<\/td>\nOscar Piastri<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMercedes<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRacing Bulls<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRed Bull Racing<\/td>\nMax Verstappen<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nWilliams<\/td>\nAlex Albon<\/td>\nCarlos Sainz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

2026 confirmed F1 drivers<\/p>\n

However, Guenther Steiner believes Sainz might regret not joining Sauber<\/a>, and there was theoretically a way out for him if he decided he didn\u2019t want to continue with the Grove-based team.<\/p>\n

Sainz had an exit clause in his Williams contract<\/a>, but with no better options to choose from on the grid, he looks set to stay put in 2026.<\/p>\n

Hopes will be high at Williams that they can nail the new regulations, given how much time and energy they\u2019ve committed to it.<\/p>\n

If they\u2019re still stuck in F1\u2019s midfield, then Sainz might reach out to Red Bull should Verstappen consider his future again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull Racing are facing their most turbulent season since joining Formula 1 20 years ago. Christian Horner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[6872,24994,4199,707,101951,4200,1073,749,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-370359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-carlos-sainz","9":"tag-christian-horner","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula-1-driver-market","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-max-verstappen","15":"tag-red-bull-racing","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115085149981524751","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}