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Carlos Sainz sits in the centre of this year’s silly season after Red Bull solidifies their driver lineup for the next two years.
Sainz with the Ferrari team at the 2024 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix (Image Credit: @ScuderiaFerrari on X)This week has brought two important pieces of contract news: Alpine’s announcement that Esteban Ocon will leave the team after this season, and the announcement that Sergio Perez will stay with Red Bull through 2026.
Sainz, who’s out of a seat for next year now that Lewis Hamilton is moving to Ferrari, is one of the drivers who is the most impacted by these announcements.
A spot at Red Bull is now definitely off the cards, but now a spot at Alpine has opened up.
As reported by Planet F1, Sainz has yet to sign a deal for 2025, and he’s not in any rush to do so.
“I think everyone depends on everyone [in the driver market]. Formula 1 is a circle,” he commented to the media outlet.
“I haven’t made my mind up yet and I don’t know where I’m going to be racing next year. I also haven’t set any deadlines.
“I can establish that such it’s an important decision at this stage of my career that when I have options on the table I want to take the right one and think about it carefully because I’m about to turn 30 this year and I want to make the next project work and see how it goes.
“I’m going to give myself as much time as I need.”
Audi speculation
Sainz is probably the hottest prospect currently on the driver market, being one of four drivers to win a race so far this year, and the only one of those four without a contract for next year.
Despite not having a contract yet, Sainz has several options. There’s Alpine, now that Ocon is officially not staying for next year. Williams hasn’t made an announcement about whether or not they’re retaining Logan Sargeant yet, but there could very well be a seat open there as well.
And of course there’s Audi, the team taking over Stake F1 Team in 2026. It’s understood that the team will be losing both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu next season, and they’ve already announced that Nico Hulkenberg will fill one of those empty spots.
As for the other spot, the team is on the hunt for the best available driver, which many would agree right now is Sainz.
“We say that we want to try to have the best pair of drivers available in the market,” said Alunni Bravi, Team Representative of the Stake F1 Team.
“It’s not just depending on our team. It’s depending, of course, on the availabilities, depending on many factors. We have seen that the market is quite fluid and each day we see in the press, you know, new names and new combinations.
“So I think the target is to have the very best drivers available for us for a long-term project like the Audi F1 team project.”
And with that target in mind, there is no sense of needing to rush to complete that driver line-up.
Asked if there is a deadline for a decision to be made, Alunni Bravi replied: “Not a deadline. We have a target that I think we need to try to find the very best option.”
Will Sainz join Audi as they plan their future venture into F1, or will he try to find a spot somewhere else?