Let's recap the saga of Red Bull's second seat alongside Max Verstappen, shall we? It's a saga that, by all accounts, is gratuitously long and ends in a resolution that would be entirely predictable for a team with a 'normal' approach to the driver market.
Carlos Sainz became unexpectedly available for 2025 when his Ferrari seat went to Lewis Hamilton. The Verstappens did not want Sainz in the Red Bull team, lest the unpleasantness from the time they were Toro Rosso team-mates resurface. In the early season, Perez was doing his job as number two, and so Christian Horner decided to extend his contract early to stave off any potential losses in form as he'd experienced in 2023.
