Carlos Sainz has expressed hope that his Formula 1 future with the Ferrari team will be sorted “before the start of next year”.
The Spanish driver joined Ferrari in 2021 and after a strong debut campaign was rewarded with a new two-year contract through 2024 early last season.
But amid rumours of Ferrari potentially courting Lewis Hamilton, Sainz’s future with the Italian squad remains undecided beyond the end of next year.
Sainz, however, is aiming to have his long-term prospects settled before the start of 2024, recounting a previous experience of how unsettling it was when he was informed midway through 2018 he would be dropped by Renault for the following season.
“Obviously I don’t want to reveal what my strategies are in terms of contractual negotiations because it’s something that I never disclose,” he said.
“But if you heard me on interviews in the past, I’ve always said I like going into an F1 season knowing where I’m going to race the year after because I went through that experience in Renault and I didn’t enjoy it at all. Everything planned out, that would be [the] target.”
Asked if that meant he would ideally want something sorted at some stage during this year, Sainz answered: “Not necessarily this year, but before the start of next year or during the start of next year.”
Along with Sainz, Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc also retains a contract with Ferrari until the end of 2024.
Both drivers’ futures have been the subject of scrutiny in recent weeks, with Italian media touting that Ferrari has strung together a huge proposal to try and entice Hamilton away from Mercedes.
Leclerc, meanwhile, has been linked with a possible switch in the opposite direction, while Sainz is reportedly being lined up by Audi as the German marque prepares to enter F1 for the first time in 2026.
However, Sainz asserts that he pays no attention to the speculation, citing such reports over driver moves are commonplace at this point of an F1 season.
Pressed on whether he’s spoken to Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur about the Hamilton links, Sainz answered: “Honestly, no, because at the end I feel like I don’t think I need to; I know at this time of the year there is always these kinds of rumours, it’s silly season time.
“A week and a half ago I was going to Audi, one week ago Charles was going to Mercedes, now Lewis is coming to Ferrari.
“It’s the story of our lives when it comes to this time of the year. I’ve been long enough in F1, more than eight years, to know that it’s that time of the year.”
Sainz, now in his eighth season in the sport, acknowledges that he is less impacted by the rumours surrounding his name than he might have been in his earlier F1 years.
“Back in the day you would have read the media a lot more, try and find out a lot more, now I prefer to focus on my Monaco weekend and don’t care about what the others are saying or doing,” he declared. “Focus on myself, it’s always worked out fine for me in the past.”
