Carlos Sainz believes that he and Max Verstappen would have played nicely together at Red Bull, had circumstances allowed.

Sainz’s availability on the driver market early this year appeared to make him a viable prospect for Red Bull’s second seat, but the Spaniard ended up signing with Williams instead.

Carlos Sainz: Max Verstappen and I have matured a lot since then

Sainz was a product of the Red Bull junior programme a decade ago when he and Verstappen debuted with the then-Toro Rosso squad (now VCARB) in 2015 as teammates before Verstappen moved up to Red Bull Racing early in the ’16 campaign.

Whilst never descending into outright hostility between the Sainz and Verstappen camps, the tensions between the two sides are widely believed to have played a part in Sainz not being seriously considered for the Red Bull seat for F1 2025.

Red Bull, prior to extending Perez’s contract earlier this year, seemed a potential destination for Sainz following confirmation of his departure from Ferrari after this season, but Sainz never appeared a serious contender for the seat despite being one of the sport’s top performers.

Speaking in an interview with Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, Sainz was asked about his relationship with Verstappen, and the Ferrari driver denied that he and the Dutchman would have had any issues lining up together.

“I think I would get on well with him. We were 16 and 19 years old back then. We’ve matured a lot since then,” Sainz said.

“At Toro Rosso, they put you in a team and say ‘Fight each other, then we’ll see who’s the best and who gets promoted to Red Bull!’ – that’s the reason why Toro Rosso exists.

“You don’t drive there together for the team classification, otherwise the behaviour of the two drivers would change completely. You can see it with Charles [Leclerc] and Lando [Norris], my last two teammates – there were never any problems.

“So if my relationship with Max was the reason why I didn’t end up there, then I would say that there would have been no problems. If the decision depended solely on that, then it would simply be wrong. But I’ve already told them that.”

Carlos Sainz: Drivers can play with how you’re viewed

Sainz appears to be one of the drivers best-equipped to handle the mental side of being teammates with a dominating force like Verstappen, having compared favourably against the Dutch driver during their time together, as well as running Charles Leclerc closely during their time together as Ferrari teammates.

Having been teammates with both Verstappen and Norris – two very different drivers in terms of how they portray their mental strength in a tense championship fight – Sainz was asked where he falls on that same spectrum. Is he hard-headed and confident like Verstappen, or more willing to be self-effacing and critical of himself like Norris?

“That’s just the external picture. Inside, it can look completely different for a driver,” Sainz said.

“As a driver, you can always play with how you are viewed from the outside. I’m not saying that Max isn’t like that. Lando has decided to reveal a bit more about himself.

“I don’t know if I’m somewhere in between or more in one direction. But, as I said, you have to be careful with that kind of analysis. Drivers are quite capable of manipulating the public image in a certain way.”