Sainz insists it’s ‘time to speed up everything’ as he assesses his 2025 options

Carlos Sainz feels that now is the time to “speed up” negotiations and sort his future “sooner rather than later” as he continues to assess his options for 2025.

The Spaniard was left without a seat on the grid for next year following the news that Ferrari had signed Lewis Hamilton on a multi-year contract, meaning that Sainz entered the 2024 season knowing it would be his last with the Scuderia.

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Off the back of his victory last time out in Australia, Sainz gave an update on the discussions about his future ahead of the upcoming fourth race of the campaign in Japan.

“I’m talking obviously to a few [teams], because that’s what my management team and myself should do when I don’t have a job for next year yet,” the 29-year-old explained. “We’re talking to pretty much all of them.

“It’s just a matter of obviously going more into detail and seeing the more realistic options, and what are the best options for me and for my future. I don’t have any news for you, nothing to say here today.

“The only thing I would say is that obviously it’s time now to speed up a bit everything and hopefully we can get it sorted sooner rather than later.”

Looking at the more immediate future, Sainz also shared news on his health ahead of racing at Suzuka, having made an impressive comeback in Melbourne just two weeks after undergoing surgery following a diagnosis of appendicitis during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend.

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Asked if he is now back to 100 per cent fitness, Sainz responded: “I think so, yeah. I’ve been riding my bike this week, stayed in Australia for a week and started going back to the gym .

“Still not lifting heavy numbers like I used to do in the past, but at least I can get my training done and [I’m] feeling back to 100 per cent.”

In terms of whether he can maintain his high level of performance from Australia during the upcoming weekend in Japan, Sainz suggested that the event could potentially be a more challenging one for Ferrari.

“We’ll see. I think it’s important, like I’ve always said in the past, to turn the page quickly, in the good and in the bad,” the three-time race winner commented. “I think obviously coming from a good is more difficult to turn the page because you want to stay enjoying the moment, but I turned it on Monday.

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“[I] started focusing my training and being back as fit as possible for Japan, also because it’s going to be a challenging track for us. I think that last year was one of our most challenging ones in reference to a Red Bull – we were I think seven or eight tenths off, four or five months ago here.

“So it’s time to see where we are this year and see if we can be at least closer and enjoy a bit more this amazing track than what we enjoyed last year, because for me it’s one of my favourite ones, if not my favourite.”