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After locking in Nico Hulkenberg, Audi is in no particular rush to chase Carlos Sainz for the 2025 F1 season. This was what Sauber CEO Andreas Seidl hinted at while speaking with F1.com about their future driver lineup.
Audi is currently gearing up to enter F1 in the 2026 F1 season by acquiring the Sauber F1 team. The German giants are eager to change the driver lineup and bring in some of the strongest drivers on the grid.
Ever since Audi confirmed their entry in F1, many speculated that they would be bringing in Nico Hulkenberg to race for them. On April 26, it was officially confirmed that Hulkenberg would join Sauber in 2025.
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Another driver with whom Audi has a connection is Carlos Sainz as the Ferrari F1 driver's father, Sainz Sr., drives for Audi in the Rally racing series. When Ferrari announced that they would replace Carlos with Lewis Hamilton in 2025, it led to rumors that the Spaniard had been approached by Audi.
However, speaking to F1.com, Seidl stated that the team would not hurry to hire its second driver just yet, especially since it has locked Hulkenberg down. He added that Sauber would evaluate its current drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, and study the driver market to make an informed decision for the future.
"The driver market is difficult to predict at the moment. Having Nico nailed down, there is no specific rush to fix the second seat. We prefer to monitoring the performance of our drivers and the others we are looking – and then make the best decision," Seidl said.
Carlos Sainz labels every team a "viable" option since 2026 regulation changes could equalize the grid
Carlos Sainz feels offers from every team are viable for him as the grid could be unpredictable following the 2026 technical regulation changes. Speaking to the media, including Sportskeeda, he admitted that he has not narrowed down a single ideal team for 2025.
“All the options are viable ones right now for me because I don't have an ideal (option) for next year. So I need to consider all the options. And yeah given the huge regulations change in 2026, I consider ‘26 to be like a coin toss. It's impossible to know right now who is going to get it right for ‘26," Carlos Sainz said.
As of now, Sainz's options are rumored to be Red Bull, Mercedes, and Audi. He could go to Red Bull if the team decides to drop Sergio Perez or perform a driver swap with Lewis Hamilton taking his place in Ferrari. Alternately, he could join Audi and work with a new team going into 2026.
