Carlos Sainz maintains that he has not secured his Formula 1 future at the moment and says rumours of him inking a contract with Williams for 2025 F1 ‘make him laugh.‘
Outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz dismissed rumours in the Spanish media that he has already signed a contract with Williams, but he expressed concern that such fabricated reports always go unpunished.
Sainz knew before the season even started that he would need to secure a new seat next season following the pre-season announcement that seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton will replace him for 2025 F1.
The Spaniard has been weighing potential offers from Sauber/Audi and Williams for the upcoming season, as his door at Red Bull has officially closed after Sergio Perez signed a new contract and it is believed that Mercedes has rejected Sainz’s candidacy as well.
A report published on the day before the Canadian Grand Prix revealed that Sainz has now signed a contract for 2025 F1 and claimed that everything suggests he will be joining Williams. However, he made it clear in Montreal that no deal had been signed.
“The only thing I can tell you is there is nothing locked in,” Sainz said on Thursday. “I’ve seen reports in the media, I don’t know if it’s in Spain, people saying I’ve signed [for Williams].
“You look at those things, it makes me laugh because I remember seeing reports three months ago that I had signed for Mercedes, reports that I had signed for Red Bull.
“Now obviously those places are not going to happen. So, it’s funny, now people are saying I’ve signed for Williams.
“It makes me laugh but sometimes this goes a bit unpunished in a way for some media persons. And I’m not talking about you guys, because you guys are deep down within Formula 1 and you know when something’s been signed or not.
“I can just tell you that obviously it concerns me that people can get away with that kind of stuff.”
While Sainz keeps his plans secret, the three-time Grand Prix winner still believes that a medium-to-long-term project would be ideal for his interests and F1 future.
“About my future, I’ll put everything into perspective, I will seriously consider everything inside that contract that I sign,” he added.
“I’m still a firm believer that in Formula 1 to be successful, you need a medium to long-term project. I don’t think you’re ever going to be successful in Formula 1 to go one year somewhere to win, and then leave.
“I think you need a proper project for those things to happen. And I think ’25, ’26, ’27, ’28, offers me a good opportunity to find that. I think ’26 is going to be a lottery. I think you guys have seen the regs today.
“When I had a look, it looks impossible for me to predict who’s going to be competitive.
“I know right now you guys see it maybe with a bit of a dramatic perspective, not being in a competitive car for ’25 or ’26.
“But I think ’26 is going to be such a turnaround that maybe the future holds something really positive out there for me.”
Speaking to Sky F1, Sainz acknowledged that he has some “very good options” available, but added that it is tough for him to think about the next season based on these opportunities, particularly because Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc won in Monaco last time out and McLaren and Ferrari appear to have closed the gap on Red Bull.
“I think I never lied about the fact that there’s many options available to me right now for the future and there’s some very good options out there and it’s something that I want to think about calmly,” he said.
“Being very honest with you, having a chance to win here this weekend and then my home grand prix in Barcelona, having a chance to win in Monaco, it’s very difficult to focus and make a decision on your future when you’re so focusing on trying to maximise the year and having a competitive car this year.
“So yeah, at some point, I’m going to need to sit down and see all the options on the table.
“Up until now, I’ve left it to my management and my team to negotiate and put together all the options in front of me and once it’s time to take a decision, then I’ll have to sit down and take it.”
Sainz maintained he is smart enough to understand how the sport works and remains unbothered by the notion that he should have had a better chance of a top seat considering his race-winning form at Ferrari.
“There’s no real frustration,” he said. “It’s Formula 1. It’s been part of Formula 1 and there’s so many other things involved inside the teams that it is obviously always complicated to understand the dynamics of Formula 1 when you see it from the outside.
“But when you see it from the inside, everyone has a reason to take the decisions they have taken. In Spain we say “everyday bread’, which I’ve been seeing in Formula 1 for so many years.”
