Mercedes boss Toto Wolff now believes he knows which team Carlos Sainz will be joining when his Ferrari contract expires at the end of the season.
Ferrari made the bold call during the winter break to sign Lewis Hamilton for the start of the 2025 season and decided to partner the seven-time world champion with Charles Leclerc.
That means Carlos Sainz is set to miss out but a report from Soy Motor suggests that Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is already aware of his next destination.
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Toto Wolff believes he already knows Carlos Sainz’s next team
Carlos Sainz is driving like a man with a point to prove and after four races, he’s potentially the most in-form driver on the grid.
Max Verstappen is still leading the way in his Red Bull, but Sainz is maximising everything he can get out of his slightly inferior Ferrari.
The Spaniard returned from his appendectomy in Australia and made sure he was on hand to capitalise when Verstappen retired with a brake issue.
Despite his teammate having a better reputation for qualifying, Sainz has beaten him over one lap in the last two Grand Prix and benefitted in the race as a result.
He was the driver who took full advantage of the Dutchman’s DNF in Melbourne and was the sole Ferrari on the podium in Japan.
This has put Carlos Sainz in the strongest position possible in the driver market with plenty of options available to him.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff will be considering whether the Spaniard is the best man to replace Lewis Hamilton.
However, he believes the 29-year-old is heading somewhere else in the paddock.
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Carlos Sainz’s next Formula 1 team might already be decided
The report from Soy Motor comes from experienced journalist Raymond Blancafort who has more than four decades of experience covering Formula 1 from the paddock.
He believes there’s plenty of ‘bluffing’ going on right now and the Formula 1’s paddock is very much living up to its nickname of being called the ‘Piranha Club’.
Blancafort has now said that Wolff has hinted with ‘an air of conviction’ that Carlos Sainz will join Audi ahead of the team joining the Formula 1 grid.
He goes on to say that Mercedes haven’t had any contact with Sainz or his entourage yet.
This is putting pressure on Red Bull and Wolff’s team to decide as quickly as possible on their next driver line-up.
Wolff’s thoughts are echoed by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko who has said that Audi are putting them under pressure to decide on Sergio Perez’s future.
The German manufacturer know what they want and appear to be ready to make a big impact on the grid.
Should Carlos Sainz join Audi in 2025?
If Wolff is correct and Sainz is going to join the new Audi team – currently Sauber – from next season, then he’s taking a big risk.
Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber as they are currently known are one of three teams who have yet to score a single point this season.
They’ve been hampered by their disastrous pit stops and Valtteri Bottas was once again denied the chance to secure his first top-ten finish due to the delays he suffered in the pit lane.
New team principal Andreas Seidl has some big decisions to make when it comes to Audi’s line-up.
They’re big fans of Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg and alongside Sainz, they would be a very strong pairing with the experience required to build up a team from scratch.
However, Sainz has shown he’s capable of winning races during a Red Bull-dominated era and joining a team who might not be up to speed for years seems like a big risk.
Sauber reportedly wanted to let Bottas go at the end of last season but he’s been the stronger of their two drivers this season.
Zhou Guayu isn’t doing enough to justify a seat in Formula 1 right now and if Audi wanted to dip into Sauber’s academy to partner Sainz with a younger driver, 2023 F2 champion Theo Pourchaire and current F2 leader Zane Maloney would both be strong rookie alternatives.
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