It’s been a busy week for the driver market. Lance Stroll was confirmed to be staying with Aston Martin (shocker) and Pierre Gasly is extending his contract at Alpine. But behind the scenes something else has happened. Something big. And we have no idea what it is.
Despite Silly Season starting off big this year with Lewis Hamilton moving to Ferrari, it has been quite stable since then. Big names like Alonso and Albon extended with their respective teams, Red Bull extended their contract with Sergio Perez, and most of the other changes appear to only be happening in the bottom half of the field.
Linchpin in all of this is Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard lost his seat at Ferrari to Hamilton and has since tried to find a good new landing spot. Mercedes seems to be out of reach and Red Bull and Aston Martin have also closed their doors to him. That means that Sainz, one of the most highly rated drivers on the grid right now, will be taking a massive step back next season. Regardless of where he ends up, he will move from a team that can fight for the victory to a team that might get lucky and score a podium sometimes. And since all the bottom five teams are waiting for him to decide where to go, it also means that all the other drivers are waiting on him. Kevin Magnussen recently called Sainz the “cork in the bottle” as far as the bottom half of the grid goes.
And Sainz himself also wants to get a move on. Before the Spanish Grand Prix he said: “A decision will be taken very soon. I don’t want to wait any longer. It’s getting to a point where it’s obviously taking space out of my head for quite a few weeks now.”
Except now, just a week later, he has completely changed his tone. “I don't want to be in a hurry”, he said in Austria. “I'm going to take as much time as necessary, without having that feeling that once I make the decision maybe I should wait and see more options with a little more calm.”
It’s a complete 180 in less than a week. So what happened?
Sainz is going to [insert team here]
The rumors around Sainz change pretty much every day. He’s going to Mercedes. Or maybe not, because he’s in advanced talks with Red Bull. No wait, he’ll go to Audi. Hang on, he’s about to announce that he signed with Williams. Trust me, he’s definitely going to Alpine. At one point, people even suggested that he might go to Racing Bulls, the team where he had his start in F1.
I usually take these rumors with a grain of salt, because everyone wants to have the first scoop and therefore the slightest bit of a hint of a suggestion is taken as gospel by some of these outlets. But over the weekend in Spain, something did happen that drew my attention. Newly appointed Alpine advisor Flavio Briatore was seen talking to the Sainz family. Perhaps it’s meaningless, but it is definitely remarkable that it coincided with such a sharp change in tone from Carlos.
Coincidence? Maybe. But it does suggest that Sainz might be considering Alpine a bit more seriously than before. The French team has improved quite significantly since the start of the season. Ultimately, it’s the same stab in the dark as Williams and Audi. All those three teams claim they have the facilities to fight at the front, all three of those teams claim they have the ambition to improve massively, and they all claim that they will provide Sainz with the car he deserves. The question now remains, as it has for the entirety of this season: What will Sainz decide?