Sainz in race to secure F1 future as walls start to close in

Carlos Sainz has a new headache in the quest for his next Formula 1 seat after being dropped by Ferrari for 2025.

Since the moment he was told Lewis Hamilton was taking his drive, Sainz has been the victim of driver market forces that mean he faces a drop down to the unfashionable end of the grid.

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The latest curveball is the return of an old ally to lead a team that, not long ago, he felt was not his best option.

Binotto's Audi return a curveball

Just four months after a full takeover of Swiss operation Sauber, Audi has made big changes to the senior leadership team ahead of their arrival in Formula 1 in 2026. They’ve turned to Sainz’s old Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto, who has been out of Formula 1 for two years.

Binotto was the team principal who signed Sainz from McLaren in 2021. The Spaniard made a strong start at Ferrari, finishing fifth in the championship and standing on the podium four times but most impressively outscoring highly-rated team-mate Charles Leclerc by 5.5 points.

He's since gone on to win three races and surely would have been re-signed by Ferrari had Hamilton not been available. With his old boss back into frontline action in F1, you might imagine it would be an easy decision for Sainz to link up with him again.

“I think, first of all, I'm not up to date with everything that is going on at every team,” Sainz said when asked about the news. “But of course, I think the arrival of Mattia to any team is positive, mainly because he has the experience of what it takes to build a team that is a top team nowadays like it is at Ferrari.

“And he has that experience from Ferrari that he can bring into Audi. I'm sure it's a great asset for them, and that's why they hired him. And yeah, of course, I wish him all the best there.”

But the choice between teams, none of which are winning right now or showing signs of doing so in the short term, requires Sainz to see into the future. And that is tough to do with the new rules in 2026 that could completely change the competitive order. 

Speaking at Silverstone, Sainz admitted the predicament of weighing up which is the best – or perhaps least-worst – option was taking its toll.

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“Mondays to Thursdays before I arrive to the track there's a lot of phone calls,” he began. “A lot of time spent on the phone, meetings with my management team but also with the teams that I'm talking to, trying to understand and trying to have a full picture of the situation and it's probably quite stressful and time-consuming, instead of maybe being able to fully disconnect and recharge, our mind is still somewhere else and thinking about your future and wondering what will it be, so not an ideal situation. 

"At the same time, when I arrive on Thursday, I feel like I'm able to perform as soon as I get into an engineering meeting, as soon as I put the helmet on I feel 100% in the car and I think the Austria weekend kind of proves that I'm still at a very high level and performing at one of my best seasons in Formula 1. 

“But as I've always said, I'm not going to be a hypocrite, I believe there's always more performance in being in a stable contract situation than being where I'm at now, so I'm never going to deny myself on that, that I've said always.”

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Sainz running out of time over F1 future

Sainz has been in conversations with teams up and down the grid over his future and has been open-minded in how he has approached this.

The Mercedes drive is the obvious target, but that's long been seen as off the table given the likely signing of F2 star Kimi Antonelli. Though some are arguing it could be a little too early for Antonelli. At this point it would make more sense to put the 17-year-old alongside former Mercedes strategy director James Vowles for a foundation year, and put Sainz alongside Russell - yet there seems to be some resistance to do so.

You wouldn't blame Sainz if he's been struggling to come to terms with the fact that, through no fault of his own, he's having to choose between teams he wouldn't even have looked twice at at the start of the year. 

Now, time is running out for the Spaniard. While potential employers have so far been patient, with Williams, Sauber and Alpine all letting Sainz take his time, the clock is running down. Some are more impatient than others and, no matter how high-calibre Sainz is, he is at the point where he will have to bite the bullet and commit or accept even more options may fall off the table. 

Less than 24 hours after the Binotto news, there have been big changes at Alpine after current team principal Bruno Famin announced on Friday he was stepping down at the end of August. Sainz's interest in the team was raised by the potential move to Mercedes engines, but the ructions at the team must surely have made him think again. 

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“I think my future is still being discussed and obviously analysed very carefully,” he continued. “And there are changes to a lot of teams that I'm looking at for next year pretty much every week. 

"So there's changes, evolution on the team market as much as there is on the driver market. And I'm just going to keep giving myself time to take the decision to analyse all these things that keep changing without giving you too many clues here.

And then there is Logan Sargeant’s seat at Williams, which is also being eyed up by Valtteri Bottas. Rumours heated up again this weekend as Sainz was spotted heading into the Williams motorhome at the Belgian Grand Prix, with the team understood to be keen to lock in its driver line-up. 

What next for Sainz?

It leaves Sainz in a precarious, if not incredibly unlucky situation and he cannot wait forever.

But when asked if a decision may be made during the summer break, Sainz was adamant nothing had been decided yet.

“Do you honestly think I'm going to answer that question?” He replied, speaking on Thursday at Spa. “After all this time, I'm now going to tell you if I'm going to decide tomorrow or in five days or before the summer break? 

“I cannot honestly give you the answer, and I cannot answer that question. It's as simple as that. I don't know. I don't know if it's going to be before or after the summer break. I don't know.”

If nothing else, Carlos Sainz’s situation serves as a reminder of how cut-throat Formula 1 is. Even up against superstar team-mate Charles Leclerc, he compares well in terms of results and points. But even being off by the smallest of margins leaves you behind in F1 and overall Leclerc’s small edge in terms of performance leaves Sainz with no choice but to take a step back.

The question is, which is the one that will leave him the best chance to rise again rather than getting stuck in F1's midfield for good.

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