Christian Horner revealed Sergio Perez's strong start to the 2024 Formula One season stopped Red Bull's pursuit of Carlos Sainz, but is still open to working with the Spaniard.

It was confirmed in February last year that Sainz would be replaced by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari ahead of the new campaign.

Sainz was left looking for a seat with a number of teams showing their interest, including Sauber and Alpine, but Sainz opted to sign a two-year deal with Williams.

Red Bull, meanwhile, had initially looked to have no vacancies in 2025, with Max Verstappen tied down until 2028 and Perez handed a contract extension in June.

But after finishing on the podium in four of the first five races of the season, Perez endured a difficult period, failing to finish higher than fourth for the remainder of the campaign.

The Mexican retired from four races in 2024, and only in 2012 (six) had he suffered more in one year in the competition (also four in 2014), forcing Red Bull to make a change.

Perez finished 285 points behind team-mate Verstappen, resulting in him being replaced by RB's Liam Lawson for the upcoming season.

Horner was asked if he now regretted not moving for Sainz when the four-time race winner became available, but said different factors contributed to his driver decisions.

"Carlos is a great driver, and options still remain open with him in the future. He was considered, and in many respects, you’d say there was a real logic [to] Carlos, but we made the choice to look internally and put belief in the junior programme," he said.

"That attracts more juniors because they see a pathway to Formula 1, and if we'd gone outside the programme, that is not sending the right message, because there is so much competition now for young drivers, at the age of 13 or 14 between the teams.

"That is healthy because it is investing in young talent, but by joining the Red Bull programme, you see a clear pathway that, if you deliver, pretty much guarantees you'll get to F1. We would always prefer to give the opportunity to the progression of the junior programme.

"Sometimes you’ve got to look at all the various criteria and dynamics, and at the point that we extended Checo’s contract, you have to remember he was second in the world championship and finishing on podiums in the first four out of five races."

Perez's subsequent dip in form saw him finish the season in eighth in the constructors' championship, his lowest finish in F1 since 2019 when he turned out for Racing Point.

His poor form also saw Red Bull relinquish the drivers' championship, with McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri leading the team to their first title since 1998.

In terms of whether he feels that his team should have won that championship – and if that had been influential in Perez leaving – Horner responded: “I think there’s ‘should’ve, could’ve, would’ve’ when you look back.

"There’s always hindsight. I think McLaren did a great job.

"At the end of the day, we won more races, we won nine races, we had the most poles, we won four Sprint races, which is more than any other team, and we won the drivers’ championship with two races to go.

"Unfortunately, we had a 280-point deficit between our drivers, and, of course, that became quite expensive in terms of the constructors’ championship."