Sainz: Leap into the unknown

Audi has already announced the first F1 driver in its history: Nico Hülkenberg will join the Sauber team in 2025, and he will continue with them even when the four-ringers take the Swiss stable in their name – thus the fate of nine seats for 2025 has been decided.

According to the most likely scenario at the moment, Carlos Sainz will be the team-mate of the regular German driver, but the Spaniard has other options – and as he said, he should consider the different options, if only because the 2026 season is a kind of leap will be in the unknown, so it may also depend on luck whether you will make the right choice:

“At the moment, all the possibilities are possible because I don’t have a contract for next year, so I have to consider them all. With the huge rule change in 2026, that year is a bit of a toss-up for me. It is still impossible to say who will be the runner-up,” Sainz said, then underlined that it is not possible to be sure based solely on the preliminary information about the teams:

“When I make the decision about where I will be in 2026 and 2027, it will not matter how much I talk to the teams, how much they sell you, how they are with the bike, because the reality is that nobody knows in advance. “

“If someone wins in 2026, I don’t think it will be because of smart decision-making, but because they will simply be in the right place at the right time,” he said, and then, although he did not name Sauber, he also hinted at the fact that if they finally accept Audi’s offer accept it, he would have a very difficult year ahead of him next season:

“As for 2025, I definitely think that at the level I’m driving now, it would be very attractive for me to be in a competitive car. But I repeat, it’s not up to me and I still have to wait,” said the Spanish competitor, who, in addition to Audi, also spoke with Mercedes and Red Bull.