Sainz admits Mercedes seat chances now ’small’

Carlos Sainz admits the likelihood of securing a championship-winning race seat for 2025 is "small".

The Spaniard is the ongoing cork in the bottle of the Formula 1 driver market at the moment, given that he is weighing up offers from Audi, Alpine and Williams - whilst holding out hope of a Mercedes or Red Bull seat.

Max Verstappen appears unlikely to leave Red Bull, however, while Kimi Antonelli is edging ever closer to the Mercedes race seat - with another test lined up at Spa-Francorchamps after the Belgian GP weekend.

Former F1 driver David Coulthard thinks a good strategy for Sainz, 29, may be to turn down the midfield teams and instead sit on the sidelines as Ferrari’s reserve for a couple of years.

"Absolutely no," Sainz insisted in Belgium. "Sabbatical is not even in my head. "I would rather go down to a midfield team and use my skill, in the peak of my career, to try and help a midfield team to find the right way than taking a year off or being third driver for anyone."

It is believed Alpine is now Sainz’s most likely pick, although the arrival of his former Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto at Audi may just have changed things.

"Not really," Sainz replied when asked about whether the Binotto factor changes anything. "I’m just going to keep giving myself time to take the decision to analyse all these things that keep changing - without giving you too many clues.

"My best option for next year would be a championship-winning car, which has been my number one priority since these talks about my future have happened. And the likelihood of that, we all know, is small, but that’s always been my target.

"And if that doesn’t happen, I’ll choose what’s best for my near future, for sure."