Carlos Sainz’s days in Ferrari are numbered, and he is yet to sign a contract with a different team for the 2025 season.and beyond.
On Thursday morning UK time, Haas announced that Ferrari Academy and Prema F2 driver Ollie Bearman had signed a multi-year deal with the team.
The silly season keeps on continuing. There are multiple drivers on the current grid with uncertain futures, Ferrari’s 3-time Grand Prix winner Carlos Sainz is one of them.
He is currently the most coveted driver available on the market, with Alpine, Williams and Audi/Sauber looking for an opportunity to snatch the Spaniard for themselves.
Amongst the drivers with uncertain futures, Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu said that he is “surprised” by Sainz’s delay in signing with a new team since all his options are with midfield teams or backmarkers.
The 25-year-old echoed his teammate words and stated that Sainz’s single decision is holding up the decisions of other drivers on the grid as they are all waiting for the pieces to fall into place.
“We’re all waiting for Carlos to make decisions but we are continuing to speak to different teams to understand where I’m going,” Guanyu stated in his written media session on Thursday.
Nonetheless, he feels “confident” that he has a chance to sign with some team.
“It’s clear [Sainz] is kind of priority in the market now but things remain open and at this point, I still feel confident that I can have a chance somewhere.”
Carlos Sainz who is currently fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, has been waiting and waiting to make a decision, and he still is.
It’s something that has perplexed the driver from Shanghai.
“Honestly, I feel it’s a bit difficult to understand, just because it’s not that difficult to make this decision, you know?
“You’re not really making a decision of a team maybe fighting for World Championship. You’re making a decision between, let’s say, that are mid-runner teams, depends where you want to head off.
“And yeah, I don’t know what he’s thinking, but we’re just waiting for him, nothing more.”
Guanyu also highlighted the fact that Sainz is “holding up everyone’s decision”. He feels that other teams who have submitted an offer to Sainz will no longer wait for him at some stage and turn to other available drivers.
The Chinese driver confirmed there is conversations with multiple teams.
“Yeah, it’s not something I expected, I think with his certain stance especially.
“And I feel like he’s holding up, of course, everyone’s decision. But at some stage, I don’t think just the drivers, I think the team will have kind of some deadline, at least, because you can’t be just waiting for, until he [has] made his mind up.
“So it’s weird or it’s strange in a way, obviously for me to experience that for the first time, also I think for a lot of other drivers on the grid. But yeah, nothing we can do, we have to wait.
“But then we’re just continuing to talk, making open conversation with different teams, so we can have the options open if there’s available.”
