Carlos Sainz admits ‘stressful’ 2025 seat search is ‘not an ideal situation’

Carlos Sainz has conceded his search for a seat in 2025 has become “stressful” as a decision over his future continues to rumble on.

Despite being one of the most coveted drivers on the grid, Sainz has yet to put to paper on a deal for 2025 and has admitted it is a distraction when he is not in the car.

Carlos Sainz admits 2025 seat selection distraction

Sainz was shown the door at Ferrari in favour of Lewis Hamilton and the number of options he has for next year has slowly been dwindling with moves such as Sergio Perez signing a new Red Bull deal having an impact on Sainz’s future.

The Spaniard is rumoured to be in discussion with a number of teams such as Alpine, Williams and Sauber but as of yet, there is something blocking him from making a decision.

Probed on how much that is affecting his preparation, the three-time race winner conceded it was becoming hard to switch off.

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“Honestly, quite a lot,” he said of how much time his search for a seat is taking up. “I’m not going to lie, Mondays to Thursdays before I arrive at the track, there’s a lot of phone calls, a lot of time spent on the phone, meetings with my management team, but also with the teams that I’m talking to. Trying to understand and trying to do a full picture of the situation.

“And yes, probably quite stressful and time consuming. Instead of maybe being able to fully disconnect and recharge, your mind is still somewhere else and thinking about your future and wondering what will it be? So not an ideal situation.”

Despite this admission, he did state that once he arrived at the track, he felt confident he could switch off and focus on racing.

“At the same time when I arrived on Thursday, I feel like I’m able to perform as soon as I get into an engineering meeting. As soon as I put the helmet on, I feel 100% in the car.

“I think the Austria weekend kind of proves that I’m still at a very high level and performing at one of my best seasons in Formula 1.

“But as I’ve always said, I believe there’s always more performance in being in a stable contract situation than being where I’m at now. So I’m never going deny myself on that.”

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