Carlos Sainz should turn down a ‘short-term’ offer from one team for the 2025 season, journalist Peter Windsor says. Sainz is trying to find a new team after Ferrari decided to let him go to sign Lewis Hamilton.
The Spaniard has considerably boosted his stock with his performances in the early part of the season, most notably his win at the Australian Grand Prix. While he missed the race in Saudi Arabia through illness, he’s scored podiums at every race he’s started, finishing third in Bahrain and Japan.
One possible option for Sainz could be to join Mercedes in a de facto driver swap. However, Ted Kravitz believes Toto Wolff may wait until late August before deciding on his line-up, which could be too late for a driver without a contract.
There was potentially an opening at Aston Martin, currently one spot behind the Silver Arrows in fifth place. However, Fernando Alonso has now confirmed he’ll be staying with the team, and team owner Lawrence Stroll wouldn’t fire his son Lance.
Williams also got in touch with Sainz’s management last year amid uncertainty over his Ferrari future. However, a move to the Grove outfit is unlikely to appeal given that they’ve failed to score a point in 2024.
Peter Windsor warns Carlos Sainz not to take one-year deal from F1 rivals
Speaking on his live F1 chat, Windsor urged Sainz not to accept a short-term offer from Red Bull. The team are familiar with the Madrid-born racer, who started his career at junior team Toro Rosso.
Red Bull director Helmut Marko has publicly accepted that they will look into the possibility of signing Sainz for the 2025 season. However, there’s a belief that they’ve made an offer to Alex Albon for the following year, which could make for a brief stay alongside Max Verstappen.
Sainz could theoretically stop off at Milton Keynes en route to Audi, who will enter F1 when the regulations change after buying Sauber. Windsor, though, has told him to seek stability instead.
He said: “To be there for only one year wouldn’t make sense for Carlos. He wants to have a proper future now in racing, he deserves that, he’s earned that.
“To go there on a short-term basis, and then go to say, Audi, would not make any sense at all from his point of view. He might do it on the basis that he might win a couple of races there, but it’s unlikely.”
Where will Carlos Sainz go?
On paper, Sainz should have a plethora of options for 2025, but the reality is looking a little more complex. Mercedes aren’t making many ‘welcoming noises’, perhaps because of the optics of hiring a driver who has just been dropped for Hamilton.
Red Bull, meanwhile, could theoretically offer him a shot at a world championship, but that would mean beating the imperious Verstappen in a team he’s made his own – a near-impossible task. That’s even before you get to the problem of the alleged Albon offer.
Moving to Aston Martin, meanwhile, would initially be a step back, even if their Honda deal is a sign of their long-term aspirations. Sainz could also take a leap of faith in Audi’s 2026 arrival by joining Sauber, but they don’t expect to be competing for titles until around 2031.
Windsor believes it would be ‘bad for Formula 1‘ if the three-time race-winner dropped down that far down the grid. Likewise, Martin Brundle has stressed that it will be ‘no small task’ for Audi to match Sainz’s ambitions.
The post ‘It’s unlikely’: Peter Windsor warns Carlos Sainz to avoid 2025 move that simply ‘wouldn’t make sense’ appeared first on F1 Oversteer.