Bad News for Carlos Sainz as Audi Boss Delivers Disappointing News for 2025 Car

Carlos Sainz’s F1 Future is almost comparable to a ping-pong ball at the moment. Taken out by Ferrari and is now being teased by almost every team on the grid. Mercedes, Red Bull, and even Williams have been linked to him. However, Sauber, who will become Audi in 2025, seems to be his best bet and has reportedly already offered him a huge contract for multiple years. However, if Carlos Sainz joins Sauber for the upcoming season, Audi Boss has some bad news for him. 

Earlier this week, Sauber announced Nico Hulkenberg’s signing, who will join the team in 2025. That only leaves one seat alongside the German at Sauber who will be taken over 100% by Audi for the 2026 season with the new regulations. While the prospect of joining a works team and being their lead driver is inviting for Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard will have to race under the Sauber badge for a year. And Sainz wouldn’t want to waste a year in his prime at a team that is nowhere near the top.

Sauber’s recent performance has been nothing to write home about. The team is currently last in the championship standings with 0 points to their name and in 2023 the team finished second last in the championship only 4 points ahead of Haas who was last. The car looks sluggish everywhere and unlike other teams doesn’t have just one weakness. Williams has great straight-line speed but lacks downforce whereas Haas has a good package but struggles with tire wear. Sauber on the other hand struggles in all departments. And the cherry on the top has been the horrific pitstop issues this year. 

And now, Andreas Seidl has come out to suggest that the team will be pouring in next year’s resources to develop the 2026 car, which leaves just this year to develop the 2025 car as much as possible. And given the base package they have, things don’t look good. According to AMuS, Seidl said, “Of course, every team wants to put as much work as possible into the 2026 car. That’s why it’s so important to develop aggressively this year in order to have a good platform for 2025. Especially because we want to confirm our path with results next year. I expect that development next year will be very dynamic, depending on how the season starts.”

However, while it looks like Audi is the most likely destination for Carlos Sainz given Mercedes being strongly rumored to sign Max Verstappen, it also opens up the opportunity to sign with Red Bull. And while it looks like the driver market is moving fast, Sainz’s manager expects no major news to break out in the next couple of weeks.

Carlos Sainz’s manager gives an update on Spaniard’s F1 Future

Earlier this season, Charles Leclerc was asked if he’s worried about Sainz getting a seat for the 2025 season to which he replied that everyone on the grid knows the Spaniard’s caliber and that his current teammate is in contact with multiple teams regarding a contract. And now Sainz’s manager Carlos Onoro has suggested the same thing adding that many teams are still in contact and wish to sign Sainz. 

The manager was then asked about how many teams are currently in contact, to which he replied, “A few, a few. Let’s say it’s an interesting period of time at the moment. The driver market has been all over the place lately and I think we will see some movement in the upcoming weeks. But, for the moment, the juggling continues.” When asked if an announcement is due soon, he added, “No, no, no. You can sleep well between China and Miami, don’t worry. There will be no big news, at least coming from us – for sure not. We’re still playing the game, so we’ll see.”

Where do you think Carlos Sainz would end up? Is Audi the best option for the Spaniard?