Carlos Sainz once again faces disappointment as he is left without a seat after a high-profile driver move.

For the third time in his career, Carlos Sainz has drawn the short straw in a high-profile driver move, leaving him standing when the music stops. First, he was passed up for promotion to Red Bull in 2016 in favour of one M.Verstappen, and then in 2018, after a subpar season with Renault, he was dismissed for Daniel Ricciardo following his big-money move from Red Bull.

Without doing much wrong, the Spaniard will lose his Ferrari seat at the end of the season, being replaced by the incoming Lewis Hamilton in a big coup for Scuderia and chairman John Elkann. In a message shared on social media immediately after Hamilton’s arrival, Carlos hinted that his future could be resolved swiftly with a new driver lined up.

Carlos clearly deserves and will almost always be on the Formula One grid. He is too talented and experienced a driver to tumble off the grid, even if that final fraction to join the Hamilton, Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, and Charles Leclerc elite is sometimes lacking.

So what are Sainz’s Options?

It’s simply not in Carlos’ character to sit about moping. In that regard, you can take his social media remark about giving his all for one last season in Ferrari red as genuine.
Sainz is built of tough stuff. He will simply brush himself off, get back to work, and move on with his life. No hard sentiments.

Carlos is built of tough stuff. He will simply brush himself off, get back to work, and move on with his life. No hard sentiments. This mindset is essential when you’ve hopped about teams like Sainz has: Toro Rosso (for nearly three seasons), Renault (for one and a half), McLaren (for two), and Ferrari (for his fourth).

He knows how to adjust and avoid burning bridges on his way out. This development with Hamilton and Ferrari does not appear to have taken the Carlos camp by surprise. They were pretty confident about extending Sainz’s contract with Ferrari on favourable terms heading into the 2023 off-season, and they weren’t exactly thrilled with what they called “bulls” reports coming out of Italy that there was some kind of misalignment with Maranello during the negotiations.

They believed that the only way Carlos’ Ferrari career could be ruined would be if F1’s most successful driver made a dramatic choice to leave the new Mercedes contract he agreed to only six months ago. Ferrari’s fear of entangling Hamilton precisely explains why the Sainz contract situation has suddenly become so ambiguous. It’s also something Sainz will fully grasp. If Ferrari had to choose between signing Lewis Hamilton for 2025 and resigning Carlos Sainz, it would be a no-brainer.

Sainz will land on his feet someplace. He’s simply too capable a driver not to. If the car requires a predisposition to understeer, he’s definitely one of the best out there – this also applies in mixed or rainy weather. When Sainz became embroiled in the unfortunate political wrangling between Red Bull and Renault in 2018 – Renault wanted to sign him permanently, but Red Bull refused to release Sainz without a hefty fee – the Sainz camp plotted their options on a whiteboard and determined that the best path to a more secure F1 future was to make an ultimately successful bid to take Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren seat in 2019.

Sainz’s stock was lower at the time, and he had fewer options. Now, because of a very respectable run with Ferrari during which he became a two-time race winner, he is expected to be at the head of F1’s 2025 driver market queue when it opens for business.
As of now, only Max Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc, George Russell, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri have guaranteed contracts for 2025, meaning Ferrari and McLaren are the only places Sainz cannot go (until further surprises are revealed!). That will have a significant impact on Sainz’s thinking, because wherever he ends up, the landscape in 2026 must also be considered.

Will Red Bull’s Powertrains Be Their Undoing?

Does Hamilton’s obvious vote of no confidence indicate that Mercedes is in a potentially permanent decline? Does Aston Martin have what it takes to break into the elite group of teams, and will Honda be competitive without Red Bull as a partner?

Looking ahead, perhaps the fledgling Audi project will be Sainz’s best bet. We know there is already strong interest there. Sainz is familiar with Andreas Seidl and James Key from his time at McLaren. Audi has set tough goals for the Sauber squad to become successful again under the new rules. And joining Stake for 2025 would give Sainz a year to thoroughly prepare to become Audi’s primary driver beginning in 2026.

The prospect of being Audi’s ‘franchise’ driver, after spending so much of his F1 career as perhaps the most effective number two driver out there, may be more appealing to Sainz than chasing down occasional race victories in Verstappen’s wake, or knocking Russell off his new team-leader pedestal at Mercedes. Sainz will face several difficult decisions this year, but he will undoubtedly be an asset wherever he goes. So, again, try not to feel sorry for him; he will not feel sorry for himself.

Also Read: F1: Who will replace Lewis Hamilton at the Silverarrows?