With Ferrari's decision to bring Hamilton to the team starting from 2025, a new chapter of uncertainty awaits in the Spanish driver's career, certainly offering a market full of opportunities.
In every story there are always two parts, and the other side of the coin of the Rossa's latest move belongs to Carlos Sainz. The Spanish driver, after a season in which he established himself among the drivers on the grid, holding the only victory in an all-Red Bull season, wanted to start 2024 with his future equally defined. Conversations with Ferrari, where he had confirmed Sainz's intention to stay for more than a year, had now been stalled for a few weeks, suggesting that there were still some open details between the Spaniard and his future at Maranello.
An unexpected decision
No one, however, expected such a timely release. Surprisingly, with the announced entry of Lewis Hamilton at the end of 2024, Carlos will leave his red suit. Sainz knows well what it means to start from scratch. It had already happened to him in Toro Rosso, when everyone decided to focus on Verstappen, with the brief passage in Renault abandoned with the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo and the two years in McLaren, which marked him both as a driver and the entire papaya team, with mentions from Andrea Stella on how much Carlos is in the success of the Woking team. Certainly, the treatment by the Red team in some moments of his move to Maranello, and especially after a very silent exit announcement, is one of the issues that weighed most in Spain and among the fans of the number 55.
The Spaniard has been virtually invisible, both in press releases and on social media, with only one post mentioning the upcoming season. On the other hand, Mercedes expressed itself with statements from both Toto and Hamilton, with mention of his move to the team, while the Spaniard shared his statement via his personal profiles. The inevitable question that everyone in Spain, but also in the rest of the world, is asking is just one: what will be in Sainz's future after his farewell to Ferrari?
The Future at Audi, the most plausible option for Sainz after his farewell to Ferrari
As reported by MARCA, the only certainty at the moment is that the idea of a sabbatical until 2026 with the change in regulations and the arrival of Audi does not cross Sainz's mind. There should already have been preliminary agreements to make him the first driver of the German team, as reported by Auto Action this summer. An option that sounds like the most feasible, since both drivers of the now named Stake F1 Team (Sauber) will finish their contracts at the end of 2024 and a replacement for Zhou Guanyu would allow the Spaniard to dedicate a full season to adapting to the team , already leading the operation of the team and the development of the 2026 project. We also remember that Carlos Sainz Sr, Carlos' father, has just won his fourth Dakar Rally at the age of 61 with Audi, and the project is led by Andreas Seidl, his former director at McLaren (2019-20).
The “Crossover” that George Russell likes
An option never evaluated but which now comes into play is to fill the seat left empty by Lewis Hamilton, next to George Russell. The English driver left a clue about this hypothetical move with a post on his Instagram account, with the photo of him and Sainz and under the caption "The crossovers we like“, which could mean that it is an option that the English driver likes or that is even already being evaluated by both parties. Sainz would be a bet to maintain the level awaiting the arrival of Kimi Antonelli, Wolff's favorite who is proving to be a formidable talent, having won the German and Italian Formula 4 titles in the same year before sealing the FRECA title in 2023 and who will make the leap to Formula 2 with Prema this year.
Red Bull unlikely, in Spain they dream of a duo in Aston Martin
With the two McLaren drivers with secured contracts, Piastri at least until 2026 and Norris just renewed with a multi-year contract, the Spaniard's return to papaya seems the least feasible option, but not so much a hypothetical return to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen. The Spaniard could be interesting as a replacement for Checo Pérez, even if the figure of Daniel Ricciardo always remains in the middle, practically an official candidate from the 2023 season to be the Dutchman's number 2. Furthermore, the relationship between Sainz and Verstappen had been cataloged by Helmut Marko as "toxic", which could be a reason for rejection by the Milton Keynes team.
A special relationship would instead be the one he could maintain with Fernando Alonso, his childhood idol, and who could be his partner in Aston Martin if Lawrence Stroll wanted a more competitive option to partner with the two-time world champion, now willing to stay in F1 for a while, which would create the perfect duo, already dreamed of in Spain.
