Pundit reveals Christian Horner's masterplan if Max Verstappen left Red Bull

F1 expert Scott Mitchell-Malm unraveled Max Verstappen's replacement if the Dutchman left Red Bull. Labelling it as Christian Horner's masterplan, Mitchell-Malm stated that the former Red Bull boss had Carlos Sainz in mind as Verstappen's successor at the Austrian team.

The rumors surrounding Verstappen's departure from Red Bull grew extremely strong during the course of the season, as Red Bull's constant downward spiral in terms of performance continued. The rumors linked the Dutchman away from Red Bull and Mercedes was regarded as his potential destination.

With no improvement in performance, and Verstappen closer to being in P4, the Dutch driver was moments away from triggering his exit clause. However, just before the summer break, Max Verstappen decided to stay back with the team for at least one more season.

Meanwhile, Red Bull sacked Christian Horner and replaced him with Racing Bulls team principal, Laurent Mekies. If this turned out to be the opposite, where Verstappen leaves, and Horner stays, the British boss had a driver in mind as the four-time world champion's replacement.

Mitchell-Malm, a renowned The Race journalist opened up about this recently in The Race F1 Podcast, where he mentioned Sainz was in Horner's plan if Max Verstappen left Red Bull. Speaking about this, here's what he said:

“I know that the one place where Sainz was on the radar was Christian Horner’s Red Bull. I believe that Sainz was part of a very, very aggressive sort of Verstappen plan B, basically, that Horner quite liked the idea of. Which was, well, if Verstappen’s gone, you’ve got a load of money and you’ve got no potential tension or anything like that to worry about."

“I 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. Go after Sainz and George Russell, because obviously Verstappen, if he left Red Bull, he’d going to Mercedes. So I feel like Sainz was on the Red Bull radar," Mitchell-Malm further added.

Carlos Sainz, who was at Ferrari in 2024 was a free agent and had to leave the team to make way for Lewis Hamilton, who signed up to race for the Prancing Horse from 2025. As a result, the Spanish driver, who raced under the Red Bull banner (as a Toro Rosso driver), joined Williams to race alongside Alex Albon.

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Max Verstappen shared his thoughts after deciding to stick with Red Bull

Max Verstappen let his feelings known after he decided to remain with Red Bull for at least one more season. Addressing the rumors, here's what the defending F1 champion told the media ahead of the 2025 Hungarian GP:

Max Verstappen of Red Bull at the F1 Grand Prix Of Hungary - Source: Getty

"I'm discussing with the team already the plans, the things that we want to change next year so that means I'm also staying with the team for next year... I think it's time to basically stop all the rumours, and for me it's always been quite clear that I was staying anyway."

Max Verstappen joined Red Bull in 2016 mid-way through the season, and continued with the Milton Keynes-based team. Over his 10-year stint with the team, he saw six driver changes and won four championships.