Williams Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz is out of contract with the Grove team at the end of 2026, but admits he will “not really” consider where his F1 future lies until the championship’s summer break.
The Spaniard joined Williams for the 2025 season from Ferrari and had an impressive first year with the team. He picked up points in 20 races last year and even stood on the podium in Baku and Qatar.
This year, however, Williams has started on the backfoot with an overweight, uncompetitive car – sparking questions in the paddock about whether Sainz will elect to stay with the team or look elsewhere.
“Not really,” said Sainz when asked if he was scoping out seats at rival teams. “I’m not, seriously. I’m not because I have so much work to do here in Williams right now.
“Over the next few races and the amount of simulator sessions we’re doing, amount of meetings that are being held in the last few months.
“I’ve also told my team to leave me a bit on my own until the summer break, just to try and help Williams and improve the situation as much as possible. And then in the summer break, it will be obviously time to think about it, look at the options.”
Carlos Sainz has struggled with an uncompetitive Williams car this year
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
The four-time grand prix winner said the team “knows what my intentions and my priorities are”, which he maintains is to continue with the team and commit to its long-term aim of returning to race-winning ways. However, he concedes that there is “a lot of work” still to do with this regard.
That work is going on behind the scenes, and the Grove team has a raft of updates planned for the coming races with the aim of reducing the weight of the FW48 and also unlocking its performance.
Team boss James Vowles said a “medium-sized” update would arrive at this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, before further tweaks came at Spa, Budapest and Zandvoort. In fact, he said the team will have “almost an entirely new car for Baku” in September.
The performance this programme of upgrades unlocks at Williams will be a key factor in any decision Sainz makes on his future.
“I’m trying to go deep into the root of the causes together with JV, all the management, and everyone involved to see where things started to go wrong,” Sainz added. “I think we’ve analysed and concluded that, but not only that, it’s what do we do moving forward, how quick are those changes going to start paying off, and how diligent and how aggressive we are obviously in the recovery from the bump.
“Analysing all that, trying to help as much as I can with my judgement, my experience, to see what side and which area we need to attack more aggressively. In the end, it’s so much information and so much going on that it really leaves very little opportunity or very little brain space and time to think in any other thing.”
Carlos Sainz has been meeting with James Vowles to understand Williams’ issues
Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images
Until this all becomes clear, Sainz has asked for “as little noise as possible” from his management regarding contracts, driver moves and where his future could potentially lie.
“I’m pretty sure there will be, obviously, conversations and information being held and talk around the paddock, like there’s always at this stage of the year,” Sainz said. “But on my side, I’ve told them that I prefer to stay a bit away from it until the summer break and help the team and help everything move forward as fast as possible because my ideal plan and my order of priorities is to stay and to continue in the long-term.”
But where could Sainz go if he did want a change in scenery? The real dictators of the driver market this year are Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso. Should the Dutchman elect to leave Red Bull or F1 as a whole, it will leave a huge hole to fill at the former world champions.
Likewise, if Alonso at 44 decides now really is the time to hang up his racing helmet then Sainz could be a compelling option for Aston Martin. But would he want to jump from one long-term project to another?
Contracts will also expire this year at Audi, Racing Bulls and Haas, so F1’s silly season could prove to be a hectic one this year.
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