It is a debate you know will run and run until Red Bull finally announces who will occupy the second seat alongside Max Verstappen for 2025.
Arguably, before his Australian Grand Prix victory at the weekend, Carlos Sainz was in the running but unlikely to be one of the favourites.
Now, in the wake of his performance around Melbourne's Albert Park, the Spaniard who will be ousted by Ferrari at the end of the year, is firmly in the running.
There is a history between Sainz and Verstappen, one that Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko once labelled as "toxic" during their previous time together at Toro Rosso in 2015 and the early part of 2016 before the Dutchman joined Red Bull.
Plenty of water has flowed underneath the bridge since then, of course, and you would assume with both men being older and wiser that a potential future pairing would not head down the same route.
So should Sainz return to the Red Bull family in 2025 to again join forces with Verstappen?
Let us know what you think by voting in the poll below and in the comments section.
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Bohunkgearhead
If the Verstappen camp can keep from twisting their pan ties, this would work out well for both Carlos Sainz and Red Bull. I like Checo, but I think Carlos is even more consistent, and faster also.
ItWasntMe
If Perez finishes every race within the top 5, Red Bull will keep Perez. Especially with a possible transfer of Verstappen to Mercedes. You want at least one driver familiar with the Red Bull setups. I'd rather see Lawson than Sainz in a Red Bull seat. I think Sainz has a similar performance as Perez, so a swap would add little to nothing to the team. During his 2015 and 2016 stint he didn't impressed me actually. He did show some awesome races with Ferrari, but it is not he is close to Leclerc every race. Just like with Perez, his results are all over the place. Besides after his Brazil 'payback' to Perez, Perez will never impede Verstappen in any way and therefor they are ideal teammates. Verstappen and Sainz were toxic. Not a very good base to build a team. I think that Sainz should go for Lewis Mercedes seat. Mercedes and Ferrari are fairly close in team and performance over a full season, Ferrari usually starts better, but Mercedes tend to end strong.
billy-raymond#58436
They may be friends on track but should they become teammates again, I feel that behind the wheel Max will go nuclear on Carlos like he did to Sergio last year.