Nico Rosberg believes that Carlos Sainz is looking for a lucrative offer from Red Bull as negotiations over the Spaniard’s future in F1 continue.
Sainz will leave Ferrari at the end of the season despite being the only non-Red Bull race winner since 2022. Lewis Hamilton will replace him at the Scuderia.
It leaves Sainz without a drive for 2025 and with Aston Martin now off the table given Fernando Alonso’s contract extension, Mercedes and Red Bull look the strongest options for the 29-year-old.
Sainz started his career at Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso in 2015 – alongside Max Verstappen – and a return to the world champions would likely come in replacing Sergio Perez, whose contract expires at the end of the season.
Yet while Perez’s future is unclear, 2016 world champion Rosberg shed some light on the paddock gossip at the Chinese Grand Prix over the weekend.
“You know that they [Red Bull] have an offer out to Carlos Sainz,” Rosberg told Sky Sports F1.
“I saw daddy Sainz speaking to Christian Horner yesterday because Horner has apparently been a bit stingy on the offer.
“So they’re trying to get a couple more million out of him!”
Sainz’s father, Carlos Sainz Snr. Is a former world rally champion and has been present at F1 paddocks around the world in support of his son.
Horner said of the 2025 driver market in Shanghai: “As you can tell with the level of interest that we have had from other drivers in our seats, for a driver of Carlos’ calibre, he wants to be in a winning car.
“And whilst we have one seat available for next year his target, inevitably, is that seat.”
Perez, on the other hand, believes his future could be decided within a month, having secured four podiums in five races this season as Red Bull look set to dominate once again.
Aside from Mercedes and Red Bull, Sainz’s other option seems to be Sauber, which becomes the Audi works team in 2026.
