Mercedes, Audi, Aston Martin: What 2025 F1 options does Sainz have?

As a former Red Bull junior and team-mate of Max Verstappen in 2015 and part-way through 2016, Sainz could thrive in a familiar environment. Although he was no match for F1’s current reigning champion as a junior driver – finishing 31 points behind the Dutchman in the 2015 drivers’ standings – Sainz’s performance in a 2025 Red Bull race seat could tell a different tale. In his time at McLaren and Ferrari, the Spaniard has proven to be a cool and calming presence in F1 pit garages with some often blinding race pace and consistency to match.

These are the qualities that Christian Horner and Helmut Marko may be looking for in a potential replacement for Perez – a driver who has often struggled to match the pace of his team-mate and sometimes even crashed out trying to do so.

In a generally slower car, Sainz has been narrowly out-qualified by Perez from 2021 to 2023 (with an average starting grid position of 6.17 to Perez’s 5.55) but both drivers have finished 5th on average on race day. Effectively, Sainz could end up being a like-for-like replacement for Perez, although the Spaniard is five years younger.

With the likes of Norris and Leclerc now locked up on long-term deals of their own at rival teams, Sainz may have very little competition in securing the fastest current seat in F1 should Perez be ousted. RB’s Daniel Ricciardo or Yuki Tsunoda could be the only other contenders, although both drivers’ are yet to measure up to the current form of Sainz.

Sauber/Audi

Should Sainz want to invest in the future instead of the present, Sauber may be his next big option for a 2025 race seat.

The longstanding F1 outfit will officially be taken over by Audi ahead of the new regulation changes in 2026, which will focus primarily around engines which will utilise three times the electrical power and run on fully sustainable fuels.

The German car giant has been developing its power unit at Neuberg in Germany since 2022 and performed initial tests at the end of 2023. Without the need to develop an F1 car for 2024 or 2025, a focus on enhancing a car built around the 2026 regulations could give Audi a significant advantage once it hits the track for the first time. To captalise on this, picking the right driver line-up could be critical in the constructors’ success.

Both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu – Sauber’s current driver pairing – are both on deals set to expire at the end of 2024. Neither driver has shown many signs of significant improvement or performance, leaving many to suggest that Sainz could be swept up to lead the team moving forward.

Much like Red Bull, the Sainz family also have a pre-existing relationship with the German manufacturer, as his father Carlos Sainz Sr most recently piloted an Audi RS Q e-Tron rally raid car to victory at the 2024 Dakar Rally. Could Sainz Jr find similar success behind the wheel of a Audi-powered F1 car in 2026? He’ll likely have to suffer through a year of mid-pack battles in 2025, but it could be worth the wait with that constructor might behind him.

Mercedes

After Lewis Hamilton announced his departure to Ferrari from 2025 onward, Toto Wolff’s phone has reportedly been ringing off the hook.

“We’ve already had a lot of conversations and I’ve been with Toto a lot this winter,” said current Mercedes star George Russell. “So seeing the drivers’ names pop up on the telephone has been quite funny.”

It’s highly likely that Sainz is one of the many aiming to secure a seat at Brackley for 2025 and beyond, but as stated by Karun Chandhok in this month’s Motor Sport magazine, the Spaniard may have a stronger case over F2 junior Kimi Antonelli, who has so far been heavily tipped as Hamilton’s replacement since early February.

“There’s a strong argument for Mercedes doing a direct swap with Ferrari and signing Sainz on a two-year deal,” Chandhok says. “He’s proved he can cope with the extreme pressure of delivering wins and podiums as a Ferrari driver. The reason why I say two years as a minimum is that the 2026 rules are considerably different from the current ones we have now and I do believe that the teams will greatly benefit from continuity across the regulation changes.

“Antonelli will still only be 20 years old during the 2027 season and if he’s as good in F1 as his junior formula record suggests, he’ll be worth waiting for.”

Aston Martin

The 2024 F1 driver market is set to be one of most chaotic and unpredictable ‘silly seasons’ in recent memory, which may force Sainz to sit back and evaluate his options before committing to a new deal with a new constructor.

Arguably, the most intriguing prospect surrounds the movement of Fernando Alonso, as should the two-time world champion decide to retire or move elsewhere, a seat at Aston Martin for 2025 could suddenly rank among the most sought after on the grid.

Having jumped from a midfield settler to a regular podium contender in 2023, the Silverstone outfit have proved capable of finding front-running pace. With the funding and the facilities to match, Aston Martin could rank among the very best should it begin the 2026 regulations on the front foot and Sainz could be the right man to lead the charge and a perfect long-term replacement for the veteran Alonso.

But with the Spaniard still undecided on his F1 future, Sainz may be left to play the waiting game.