Carlos Sainz reflects on moving from racing-winning team after F1 2024, as he notes that 2025 is equally important year as the following ones.
Having had the chance to drive a race-winning machine, Sainz is most likely to be without one in 2025 F1 season. The only real option remaining where there is a chance to continue winning is at Mercedes, but that door seems to be closing as well.
It leaves him with options like Sauber/Audi and Williams, with Alpine being an outside chance. He has been linked to the seats at the former two thus far, with the British outfit team boss James Vowles throwing the hat in public in recent times.
Sainz is yet to firm his decision. In his thinking of long-term of performing in 2026 or 2027, he isn’t looking the 2025 season as a gap year. “No, I didn’t say that and I don’t say that,” he said to media. “For me, 2025 is equally important to 2026. Why? Because I think 2026 is a lottery. So I could go somewhere.
“And any of the options that I have on top of the table and be successful or not. And even one of the top teams could nail it or not, you know, I think ’26, very honestly speaking, it’s impossible to find out. So given that, after everything I’ve seen, ’26 is almost impossible to predict who’s going to be on top.
“2025 is almost a bit more certain who’s going to be where and you can more or less know and predict where they’re going to be. And for sure, it’s going to be important in my decision, is not like I’m going to rule out ’25. For me, ’25 is equally important to ’26 or ’27,” summed up Sainz, who knows that he will be transitioning from race-winning position to one where he won’t be winning in 2025 or maybe even 2026.
He is not frustrated about it considering that is how F1 has always been. “No, there’s no, no real frustration,” said Sainz. “I mean, obviously, my target in Formula 1 is always to win, and be in the best possible position. And that’s what I like doing and what I enjoy doing, and I still have a year of that in Ferrari, and I’m going to focus on maximizing that opportunity, because any given weekend, right now, I could be on the podium or I could win a race. And this gives me joy, gives me a really good feeling.
“Everything else that you’ve talked about, it’s Formula 1, it’s been part of Formula 1, it’s… it’s so many other things involved inside the teams, that is obviously always complicated, you know, to understand the dynamics of Formula 1 when you see it from the outside. But when you see it from the inside, everyone has a reason to take the decisions they have taken. So for me it’s, everyday… in Spain we say everyday bread, you know, that I’ve been seeing in Formula 1 for so many years,” summed up Sainz.
Here’s Ferrari undertaking Pirelli test in Mugello
Here’s Ferrari trio on weekend to forget in Canadian GP
Here’s Carlos Sainz, James Vowles on interest
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