MPH: Why Sainz couldn't wait on the whim of Verstappen any longer

F1

With uncertainty at Red Bull and Mercedes, Carlos Sainz stalled his F1 contract negotiations for as long as he could. In the end, writes Mark Hughes, he had to sign with Williams or risk seeing Valtteri Bottas take the seat

Williams Carlos Sainz Max Verstappen

Sainz is headed to Williams — but was it his last resort?

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Mark Hughes

Finally! Carlos Sainz uncorked the driver market bottle by signing with Williams earlier this week. He could not afford to wait around forever on the off-chance that Mercedes or Red Bull might need him, depending upon the whim of Max Verstappen.

Mercedes made no secret that he was on their shortlist, but that it was (and is) quite serious about trying to lure Verstappen away from Red Bull so couldn’t yet offer Sainz anything concrete. By contrast, Red Bull absolutely could not be seen to be in any discussion whatsoever with Sainz – just in case that became the very thing which triggered Verstappen’s departure. Sure, if Max did suddenly leave at the end of this year, Red Bull would have been crazy not to have recruited Sainz if he’d still been available. It would absolutely need a top level experienced driver and there aren’t too many about.

But from Sainz’s perspective, he could not hang around on the off-chance. Even if Verstappen stayed at Red Bull there was no guarantee that Mercedes would take Sainz; he was merely on its shortlist with its protégé Kimi Antonelli. Williams wasn’t prepared to wait forever and was some way down the line with negotiating a return to the team for Valtteri Bottas.

So Williams it is. James Vowles presents a very convincing and sincere vision for what he believes Williams is on the way to becoming and how it is going to happen.

Carlos Sainz Williams Alex Albon

Sainz (left) and Alex Albon (right) complete Williams’ driver line-up from 2025 onwards

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That’s not really something which could be said of the two offers Sainz has declined: Audi and Alpine. Uncertainty surrounds them. Audi has dismissed the man it had tasked with running its F1 programme before it has even started. Meanwhile Flavio Briatore is de-scaling Alpine from a works automotive team to a customer team at the very least and possibly even preparing it for sale. His appointment of Oliver Oakes as team principal has certain parallels with how he helped bring Christian Horner to F1. Both have/had their own junior series teams and had/have F1 ambitions but have been brought in to run an ostensibly separate programme to that of their own teams.

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It’s not unreasonable to entertain the possibility that Oakes’ appointment to the team principal position at Alpine could be the precursor to his HiTech organisation eventually merging with the Enstone team. He still has close connections with billionaire oligarch Dmitry Mazepin, father of the former Haas F1 driver Nikita. Nikita’s nine-year-old kid half-brother Stepan currently races in karts with assistance from Oakes, a former world karting champion himself.

But Sainz’s uncertainty about how Alpine’s future might pan out has created the opportunity there for the team’s test driver Jack Doohan who has been working hard behind the scenes at Enstone for a couple of years. Ever since Oscar Piastri despaired of getting a signed contract and headed for McLaren instead, in fact. Doohan deserves his F1 opportunity and is one of those drivers whose improvement curve just keeps getting steeper. Last year in his Friday FP1 session at Abu Dhabi with Alpine he was within three-tenths of Pierre Gasly. Minutes later he climbed into his F2 car and set pole.

All of which just leaves the Sauber seat alongside Nico Hülkenberg vacant. Bottas wanted to leave there but now things have changed. Not only is there no available Williams drive but Sauber has a new CEO in Mattia Binotto and a new team principal in Jonathan Wheatley. There’s every reason to start there with a clean slate. Or has the driver market got one sting in the tail left?

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