Red Bull motor sport adviser Helmut Marko has confirmed talks with Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz but says that their current driver Sergio Perez is the best option beyond the season at the Formula One world champions.
Sainz has to leave Ferrari at the end of the year because seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is joining from Mercedes.
Spain's Sainz has a Red Bull history as a former driver for sister team Toro Rosso, now Visa RB, alongside a then young Max Verstappen who is now Red Bull's star driver with three straight world titles.
He is the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race since the start of the 2023 season, winning last year in Singapore and last month in Australia. He has made the podium in all three races he contested this year.
"We are talking to him, he's having his strongest season in Formula One," Marko told Thursday's edition of Austrian daily Kleine Zeitung.
"But he has a very lucrative offer from Audi that we can't match or beat. But we know him from the Toro Rosso days, even back then he raced with Max. But it really hurt him back then when we backed Verstappen at Red Bull and not him."
Marko was referring to German car makers Audi who are to enter F1 in 2026 as a works team by acquiring the Sauber outfit. The contracts of current Sauber drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyou expire at the end of the year.
Marko said that Perez remains the preferred candidate because "it is clear that Checo is having his best season at the moment since he has been with us.
"If he keeps up these performances he is certainly the best 2025 option at Red Bull," Marko said of Perez who has finished three season races in second behind Verstappen.
