Carlos Sainz is still the hot topic on the drivers’ market as he’s considering all options for his future in Formula 1. He was recently being linked to Sauber or Williams, and now the talk is that Alpine came in with an offer that could be the dealbreaker for the Spaniard.
Even though Sainz promised last week at the Spanish Grand Prix that the resolution to the debates about his contract for 2025 would come very soon, he noted that the triple-header is not the right time for any announcements. Instead, right now, he focuses on what the negotiations with different teams taught him about the “tough” Formula 1 environment.
While taking his time with the decision, he learned that he can trust “very few” people in the paddock and throughout the process of negotiations, he found it difficult to believe certain things.
“First of all, the situation that I’ve been in this year has made me learn a lot about Formula 1 in general,” Sainz remarked.
“By talking to teams it has kind of showed me how tough this sport is and how little sometimes you have to believe what people say at the beginning of negotiations, conversations, and mainly people.
“Also to trust very little people in the paddock because it’s really a very political sport.
“There’s a lot of things like this involved, and it’s made me understand it’s a very tough sport in that sense and understand a better picture of Formula 1 without going too much into detail.”
Basically, ever since Lewis Hamilton signed with Ferrari before the start of this season, there were constant rumors going around about Sainz’s next moves and potential seat for 2025. However, the Spaniard always pointedly denied them, stating he wants to take time to come to a decision for his long term future.
Many teams, especially those usually fighting in the midfield or even some backmarkers in recent seasons, clearly showed interest in getting Sainz into their driver line-up. And with almost every top seat in teams like Red Bull or McLaren already taken now, those are the options Sainz will be choosing from at the end.
The Spaniard admitted that in this process, it was difficult not to get too carried away by the teams’ recent results in races and judge them only by their current speed. He does not want to pick a team based on their placement in the last Grand Prix, but instead look ahead and judge the long-term plans and potential.
“Apart from the other teams, obviously I’ve learned a lot in which position they are in and the teams that I am potentially moving to next year, I’ve obviously dug in a lot into the state that they are and the situation that there is.
“And yeah, it’s also made me have probably a better understanding of how Formula 1 each team is and where they are.
“I’m doing the exercise within myself and my team to really try to avoid looking at each race performance of each team and just focus on the project and the feeling that I get by talking to each team and obviously looking at the contracts.
“I agree, it’s not easy because sometimes you, the competitive spirit, you just try and see who is faster, but I don’t think the last race of each team is also a representative point of where they’re going to be in the next couple of years.”
