Carlos Sainz continues to maintain his playing cards near his chest with regards to making a name about the place he’ll drive within the 2025 Method 1 season after his Ferrari exit.
The Spaniard’s shortlist seems to have been lowered to 2 groups: Williams or Audi, which is able to be a part of F1 in 2026 whereas it continues to run below its Sauber guise subsequent 12 months.
However which crew ought to Sainz choose? Our writers give their verdict.
Oleg Karpov: Audi will construct a crew round him
He says it is a lottery, however what Carlos Sainz is about to do is extra like a guess. But selecting between two horses which can be at present the slowest within the paddock is just not one thing he would have imagined a 12 months in the past.
It is laborious to guage from the surface, and solely Sainz himself, and doubtless his managers, have the total image of what these horses shall be fed to make them run quicker within the close to future. But it needs to be Audi, does not it?Â
The important thing components are all well-known. It is an enormous challenge, it is a main producer, it is ambition, it is cash, it is all the things.
However it’s additionally a chance for Sainz to lastly have the crew constructed round him. Has it occurred to you that each door he has knocked on in latest months has been closed for a similar cause?
Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari
Photograph by: Francois Tremblay / Motorsport Pictures
Purple Bull is constructed round Max Verstappen, and the selection of second driver was additionally (or primarily?) dictated by the necessity to preserve the Dutchman completely happy. He is been a Purple Bull driver since he was 16 and it’s totally a lot his crew.
Mercedes is just not a lot George Russell’s crew but, however Toto Wolff will not be changing his driver with Sainz. And as issues stand, he is prepared to advertise Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli to F1 as a substitute of taking race winner Sainz.
In spite of everything, when Ferrari needed to determine who to accomplice Lewis Hamilton with, they selected Charles Leclerc, a Ferrari driver since he was about 4 years outdated. And there is additionally no place for Sainz at McLaren as a result of it is Norris’s crew anyway.
Sainz was introduced into F1 by Purple Bull too, however grew to become a kind of gifted however unfortunate drivers who had the misfortune to return by means of the system concurrently Verstappen, and it was in all probability clever to flee.
However since then, he has by no means fairly discovered the crew that may be absolutely behind him. And that could possibly be Audi:Â An enormous producer, and an essential challenge for the model.
In the long run, it seems like Audi has a greater likelihood of success than Williams, with all due respect to Dorilton Capital and James Vowles.
A lot has been fabricated from Sauber’s present struggles, however there’s in all probability nothing much less essential for the entire challenge than the present outcomes. Do not be fooled by the rhetoric – this can be a crew in transition, prepared to sacrifice within the quick time period to get higher sooner or later.
Take these pitstop troubles, for example. You would not have heard about them if the crew hadn’t determined to radically improve its {hardware}. A number of hiccups throughout a transition interval is a worth Andreas Seidl and his crew are completely happy to pay.
And the identical goes for mid-season engineering modifications. Sauber is just making ready to develop into Audi. It could be extra worrying in the event that they began firing on all cylinders now.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas F1 Workforce,reas Seidl, CEO, Kick Sauber, Beat Zehnder, Sporting Director, Stake F1 Workforce Kick Sauber
Photograph by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Pictures
Sure, it will be odd for Sainz to decide on the crew that’s at present backside of the standings. However then once more, no one would need to go to Honda on the finish of 2008, would they?
It’s laborious to think about Audi beating the established leaders in 2026, however stranger issues have occurred in F1. I do not assume it issues a lot to Sainz if he is preventing to get out of Q1 or, say, within the decrease positions of the highest 10 subsequent 12 months. He needs to be preventing for titles sooner or later. And a fully-fledged producer’s crew is all the time a better option if you wish to hit the jackpot.
In spite of everything, his long-term plan for the longer term might all the time be… Ferrari. In contrast to Fernando Alonso, he has by no means utterly burned the bridges with the groups he has raced for.
He nonetheless has unfinished enterprise with Renault, when you bear in mind the statements made in 2018. He is nonetheless valued by McLaren. And he is now an ideal crew participant at Ferrari, having given no trace in public that he is too displeased with the crew’s determination. He is even “completely happy for Charles” that Leclerc received in Monaco.
So, if the Audi guess does not work out in three years’ time and Hamilton decides to name it a day, he’ll in all probability have an opportunity to return again. However by then he won’t want it.
Ewan Gale: Williams continues to be the higher possibility
Whereas the draw of Audi is understandably a dangling carrot for a driver whose dad for therefore lengthy has been a key a part of the producer’s motorsport success, Williams has sufficient to show a greater possibility.
In reality, the most important negatives related to the Grove-based outfit can simply be became positives by wanting on the work being undertaken within the background since James Vowles arrived as crew principal.
It could be an understatement to recommend the manufacturing unit and race crew was behind the occasions when it got here to operations throughout the board, with Vowles regularly banging the drum concerning the carried-forward shortcomings – I imply, Excel spreadsheets… actually?
However what the previous Mercedes technique director has executed since becoming a member of has been to revolutionise the whole crew, a course of which is slow-moving however has eyes to the longer term and, not least, the 2026 guidelines reset.
James Vowles, Workforce Principal, Williams Racing
Photograph by: Francois Tremblay
Outcomes for the reason that begin of 2023 have been promising, given the low expectations positioned on the Williams crew forward of time. Alex Albon has been a shining star, while Logan Sargeant has confirmed the pace of the automobile is not only all the way down to his team-mate on uncommon event.
While a number of points have proven this 12 months, not least having a scarcity of substitute chassis early on which pressured the crew into working only one automobile on the Australian Grand Prix, these are a legacy of the behind-the-scenes development being undertaken and, if the crew is ready to constantly cling across the fringes of the factors in its present type, then there can solely be positivity when trying to the longer term.
To that time, plenty of hirings have been made by Williams in administration positions, not least veteran Pat Fry, to bolster the continued push up the grid.
The reset in 2026 will give the crew an opportunity to begin on the entrance foot with its new challenger, fairly than what occurred two years in the past below the latest regulation ruleset the place a poor automobile and pre-season struggles left it preventing to be aggressive.
However the energy unit state of affairs is also an enormous sway for Sainz. Whereas Audi shall be coming into with its personal works unit – which itself does include benefits – it’s a utterly new endeavor for the marque and will current itself with related points to that skilled by Honda final decade.
If that is the case, it could possibly be years till that energy unit is aggressive in F1 in opposition to the established OEMs in Ferrari, Mercedes and Honda.
Alex Albon, Williams FW46
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Pictures
Williams, however, shall be in possession of Mercedes’ unit which, if paddock noise is to be heeded, is wanting robust for the brand new laws.
Sure, it will likely be a buyer provide that Williams has to tackle in comparison with Audi, which is able to restrict sure design options while its rivals can create a automobile with a clean canvas. However that hasn’t stopped McLaren in latest occasions – the Woking-based crew far outperforming the manufacturing unit Mercedes effort prior to now 18 months.
One other essential issue that might sway Sainz is that Williams is trending upwards from a droop and appears to be progressing by means of the sector, turning into extra aggressive month by month. Audi’s crew, Sauber, is struggling to search out any type because the C44 labours close to the again of the pack week in, week out.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu have successfully been hamstrung by the automobile’s efficiency on observe, whereas pitstop points heralding from a winter replace to pit tools is hardly an attractive proposition for any driver, not to mention one among Sainz’s race-winning stature. Watching a automobile stationary in its field for half a minute race to race can’t be interesting.
You need to really feel that momentum has to depend for lots when making his determination in order to not utterly waste a 12 months subsequent time period while ready for the 2026 laws. That may push Sainz in direction of Williams.
There was loads of flattery from Vowles in latest weeks as Sainz mulls over his determination, one thing which the Spaniard has acknowledged. He and Albon could possibly be the kind of galvanising partnership that might propel a crew like Williams into a daily podium-contending power within the years to return.
Possibly that’s extra of a draw than a works drive – one which could possibly be extra rewarding if success does come his means.
