Sainz Unfazed By Alonso's Contract With Aston Martin: 'All My Best Options Are Still Open'
F1Thursday, 18 April 2024 at 17:00
Speaking to the media at Shanghai International Circuit on Thursday ahead of the Sprint weekend, Carlos Sainz asserted his 'best options" regarding potential future teams "are still open."
The 2024 Chinese Grand Prix follows a one-week break following the Japanese Grand Prix. During this break, Fernando Alonso signed a contract extension with his current team, Aston Martin.
This means that there is potentially one less team where Carlos Sainz might head after the end of the 2024 season. Nevertheless, the Spanish driver told Sky Sports that his best options were still open.
"For sure, all my best options are still open, which I think is a positive thing and is something that obviously requires a bit of time, given the situation of the market."
Sainz would obviously like to join a team that would give him the chance to fight for the Championship title. As he proved in the first four races of the 2024 season, he has what it takes.
However, there are probably only two teams left that are likely to compete for the Championship in the short-term future- Mercedes and Red Bull.
The problem for the 29-year-old is that neither of these two is in a hurry to sign a driver, and Sainz himself admitted that there has been barely any development in the talks.
"I think it's going to take some time for everything to make their own mind [up] and their own decisions but the good options are still open."
"There hasn't been barely any progress over the last couple of weeks so there's nothing really to update you on."
The Ferrari driver said a signed deal wouldn't affect his performance, and as we've seen so far, it only had a positive effect, if anything. So, even though he would like to have a contract in his hand as soon as possible, he is also playing the waiting game at the moment.
"Obviously it gets to a point where the sooner that everything develops the better, because at the same time, it's not like it's affecting my performances at all this year."
"But the earlier you take this out of your head and of the situation the better. But it requires time and it requires some decision-making, so now is, as you guys said last week, time to let that happen and see how things progress."
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