Yahoo Autos Sainz content to be ‘selfish’ in setting agenda to decide his future
Carlos Sainz says he has learned to be “more on the selfish side” when it comes to making a decision over his future, and that he’s still not in a position to select his next move.
Ferrari’s decision to replace Sainz with Lewis Hamilton in 2025 has left the Spaniard as the top driver available on the market, but with only Mercedes currently with a certain vacancy of race-winning teams. The Mercedes seat was originally one Sainz wasn’t strongly in the running for but that situation appears to have changed in recent weeks, further extending the wait as he also weighs up interest from Alpine, Williams and Stake.
“Yeah, I am conscious of [other drivers waiting], but at the same time I don’t think it’s going to change because it’s only the timing that I’m changing,” Sainz said. “I’m probably not changing the outcome of anyone as probably all teams by now have their priorities and their decision-making depending on each scenario.
“At the same time, this sport and this world has taught me to be a bit more on the selfish side and look out for myself, and take the decision that I need to take whenever I need to take it and whenever I have all of the options on the table and I’m ready to take the decision, and not rush things if I don’t need to.
“The teams have been very patient and I thank them for that. But I’ve also had to be patient — it’s not like I’m the only one here deciding. At the same time I thank everyone that is having to hang in there while I take the decision.
“What I don’t fully understand is why the market is happening so early this year? Why everyone is so much in a rush, when I remember it used to be in the summer break, September, July, when all of those situations started to happen.”
Sainz admits he didn’t come to a decision in the recent gap between races and is now turning his focus back to the on-track situation he currently faces, one he hopes will improve at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix as Ferrari looks to overcome a slump in form linked to its recent floor upgrade.
“I see Silverstone as an investment,” he said. “We invested probably not optimizing the Silverstone weekend, because you spend FP1 and FP2 comparing floors and not having your teammate as a reference to optimize the car and the car performance, to potentially making yourselves faster in five or six races’ time when we can learn what we can apply from Silverstone into the wind tunnel and apply it for the future.
“Already for Hungary we have a small upgrade that hopefully makes things better, but Silverstone was an investment and hopefully improving the car a bit more in the medium and longer term.”
