Carlos Sainz confesses next F1 move depends on rival drivers deciding first

Outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has admitted his F1 future will depend on what other drivers and teams do.

Sainz is searching for a seat for 2025 after losing his to Lewis Hamilton, who is leaving Mercedes at the end of the year in order to join Charles Leclerc at Ferrari.

Hamilton’s shock switch has left a vacant seat at Mercedes, which Sainz has been linked with, though he isn’t understood to be at the top of the team’s wish-list.

With more than half the field out of contract and teams looking to firm up their line-ups for 2025 and beyond, Sainz has acknowledged that his next move may not totally be in his own hands.

“Honestly, unfortunately I have no clue where I’m going to be next year,” Sainz said. “It’s true that we are talking to many teams.

“I just need to keep focus on what I’m doing and prove to myself and to everyone that when I’m given a fast car I am maximising what I’m given and I deliver. It has been a strong start to the season.

“It is true that with this car you can shine a bit more. With last year’s car I did performances similar to this year but you couldn’t shine. It was a much more difficult car to drive, a lot more deg and in the races we were looking backwards.

“This year we are looking forwards and overtaking and this allows you to shine a bit more. I’ll keep pushing.”

When asked if his future is dependent on other driver moves, Sainz replied: “I think it also depends on other people, on other teams and what they choose to go for.

“They know I’m available so let’s see what happens.”

Sainz certainly did no harm to his prospects by claiming another podium at the Japanese Grand Prix, following on from his victory last time out in Australia.

“I had a good race, I knew the podium was possible if I did a perfect race,” said the Spaniard, who finished third at Suzuka. 

“At times it looked a bit tricky, I didn’t understand exactly what was going on with the one stops and two stops, suddenly I thought the two stop was a lot worse but when I put the hard on at the end I was very quick, flying out there and I could get the moves done to get the podium I was really pushing for.”