Carlos Sainz’s search for a new seat for 2025 was one of the most hotly-discussed topics of last season. Everyone had their eyes on where the Spaniard would go with so many seats up for grabs. While Sainz wanted to land a top team seat like Red Bull or Mercedes, those doors were not open to him.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was quite skeptical in making a quick decision about Lewis Hamilton’s replacement. But given Sainz was a contender for that Mercedes seat, the delay in Wolff’s decision stimulated an awkward situation for the Madrid-born driver.
In Drive to Survive (DTS)’s latest season, the Austrian’s conundrum gets the spotlight in the third episode where the Mercedes inner circle sat down to discuss their options. Wolff stated how Sainz’s strong finish to the 2023 season and his persona overall was “great”. But he didn’t want to rush his decision, come what may.
“We agree we don’t wanna rush. The question is: Can he afford to wait?“, Wolff added. This was around the British GP when Sainz was in negotiations with multiple teams. However, his peer drivers were not happy with the amount of time he was taking to decide his team for 2025. And they did not hold back in casually berating the 30-year-old.
In the fourth episode of DTS, clips of multiple drivers like Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas labeled Sainz as the “cork” in the bottle for the 2025 driver market as his decision would impact several other drivers’ moves and fate in the sport.
“Carlos is the cork in the bottle!”@KevinMagnussen believes the 2025 driver line-up will fall into place quickly once Sainz’s future is settled #F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/wINY0ZOiPj
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 20, 2024
If he moved to Sauber (to be Audi), either Bottas or Zhou Guanyu may end up without a seat. If the Spaniard signed up with Williams, Logan Sargeant was going to be a free agent. In fact, Zhou was candid when asked whether he would stay in F1 in 2025: “Good question. Ask Carlos”.
Magnussen also told the Netflix crew how the driver market situation “was getting a bit tedious”. Amid this, Sainz got another curveball, courtesy of Flavio Briatore, who had returned to Alpine (formerly Renault).
The dramatic twist that never was in Sainz’s 2025 signing
Drive to Survive showcased how Sainz was all set to sign with Williams of all teams at the Spanish GP last year after reportedly getting snubbed by both Red Bull and Mercedes. Team principal James Vowles had been aggressively pushing the Madrid-born driver’s signature and had narrowed down the contract details as well.
However, Briatore’s return to the paddock complicated the situation for Vowles and Sainz. The Italian businessman called the #55 driver to offer him Esteban Ocon’s seat, who was going to leave Alpine in 2025. “Flavio called me”, Sainz said in episode four of DTS, while talking about why he did not put pen to paper with Williams during the Spanish GP weeking.
This delayed Sainz’s decision as Alpine emerged as a surprising destination with a similar future outlook to that of Williams. However, the French team had seen a lot of overhaul in its leadership structure, and the internal politics did not cultivate an environment any driver with a solid reputation would want to be a part of.
Briatore’s arrival did overturn their form to some extent, though, as he knew how to get that team working optimally in F1, owing to his past experience with Renault. However, Sainz felt that Williams was a better project with stable leadership. Vowles had given Sainz a clear projection of where they expected to be in the pecking order in the next few seasons.
Vowles even highlighted what steps they were taking to achieve that. This amount of clarity was missing in Briatore’s proposal. Regardless, Briatore deemed that Sainz made a “mistake” by choosing Williams over Alpine toward the end of episode four in DTS.
