Carlos Sainz has admitted not having his Formula 1 future resolved into 2025 has been an “uncomfortable” experience at times as his Ferrari departure edges closer.
Sainz had expressed that he desired to remain with Ferrari, but the marque elected to sign Lewis Hamilton from next season to partner the incumbent Charles Leclerc.
The Spaniard has been linked with the vacant drive at Mercedes, while Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has revealed that Sainz retains a “lucrative” proposal from Audi.
Despite the unrelenting speculation, Sainz has responded well on track to register three podiums and a win in Australia from the four rounds that he has competed in.
While he concedes there is an element of irritation that he remains without a seat lined up, Sainz notes that he can’t become distracted in his pursuit of strong results.
Asked to provide an update on his future last week in China, Sainz told the media: “I think, if it will be positive or negative, it will always depend on my performance.
“I think the good thing in this sport is that, if you perform well, normally things end up coming your way.
“It can be frustrating at times, I’m not going to lie. Going to bed some days without knowing what the future is going to bring, it’s sometimes frustrating, and uncomfortable.
“Other times, it’s exciting because there’s news every day – honestly, there are new things every day that come to you.
“The good thing is managing to separate things – performing well on track and leaving the other stuff to my management team.”
Sainz believes that his predicament shows that F1 differs from other sports with teams selecting their driver line-ups based on factors outside outright performance.
“Things are progressing nicely but it shows how tough F1 is,” he continued.
“Someone that maybe sees from the outside and says ‘The guy who is performing so well and still doesn’t know where he’s going to race next year’.
“In other sports, maybe these don’t happen so often also, it just shows F1 is a very particular sport – political in some ways, sport dependent in others, it is very particular in that way.
“But also exciting and also, in a way when Netflix puts it into the way they put it, it can be very exciting from the outside once you get to know the things that go [on] inside!”
Sainz sits fourth in the Drivers’ Championship on 69 points at present, seven points behind team-mate Leclerc despite missing a round due to an appendicitis operation.
