Audi offering Sainz three-year F1 contract - Marko

Dr Helmut Marko has continued to divulge the apparent details of Audi’s contract offer to Ferrari refugee Carlos Sainz.

Sergio Perez appears headed for a new contract at Red Bull Racing next year, as Red Bull’s top F1 consultant Marko admits that he brings more than just pace to the seat alongside Max Verstappen.

"He brings Mexican sponsors with him," Marko, 80, told Osterreich newspaper. "His demands are more about the length of the contract."

Indeed, paddock rumours suggest Red Bull is only offering 34-year-old Perez a one-year deal for 2025 - while Audi-owned Sauber is rumoured to be offering him much longer in the event that he leaves.

The same sort of Audi offer is being extended to Sainz as well, Marko suggests, having told Kleine Zeitung newspaper that the Spaniard has "a very lucrative offer from Audi that we can’t match or beat".

And now, Marko has told another Austrian newspaper - Osterreich - another key detail of Sainz’s offer.

"Look, Sainz is currently in great shape," said the Austrian. "I think he has a very great three-year offer from Audi, but he has to make a decision relatively soon.

"We, on the other hand, won’t make a decision soon," Marko insists. "We won’t let things like that put us under pressure."

Sainz has also been linked with Mercedes for 2025, but - like Red Bull - that might only be a one-year deal.

"I won’t talk about (team) names, because I don’t want them to be in the headline - ’Carlos said this or that’," the 29-year-old said in Shanghai. "When I said that we have been talking to all the teams, I mean that we have been talking to all the teams!

"I’m sure there are very interesting options in the medium term, not even the long term, that I will consider and am considering. Each option, without a doubt, has its advantages and disadvantages.

"The best thing is that all the good options are still there and we can still consider them all."

As for a one-year offer from Red Bull or Mercedes, however, Sainz hinted that "it would of course be very tempting to get a competitive car for 2025".

"But that doesn’t just depend on me," he added.

"I think it shows how hard F1 is," Sainz continued to tell Spanish language reporters in China. "Someone who is doing well doesn’t know where they are going to race next year, which in other sports doesn’t happen so often.

"F1 is a particular, political, but also exciting sport. It will be entertaining when Netflix shows what’s going on," he smiled.