Christian Horner believes bringing Carlos Sainz back to Red Bull Racing would not have sent the right message to the team's young driver pipeline.
Even if “the options always remain open” for Sainz to possibly return one day, the team director preferred to make the internal promotion machine work again.
It was therefore Liam Lawson who was started in place of Sergio Perez and Isack Hadjar who took his place at Racing Bulls for the 2025 season.
“Carlos is a great driver, and the options always remain open with him in the future.”
“It was considered and in many ways you could say there was real logic in signing Carlos, but we made the choice to look internally and believe in the junior program.”
“It attracts more juniors to sign with us rather than another academy because they see a clear path possible into Formula 1. And if we had gone outside of the program it wouldn't have sent the right message, because there is so much competition between teams for young drivers, even at 13 or 14 years old.”
“It's healthy because it allows you to invest in young talent, but by joining the Red Bull program you see a clear path which, if you succeed, practically guarantees you getting to Formula 1.”
“We always prefer to give the opportunity to someone who deserves their progression to F1 from our junior program.”
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