Sainz Renewal Could Be Announced Before Zandvoort

Marca reports Carlos Sainz is negotiating exclusively with Williams over a one-year extension, with an announcement possible before Thursday's Zandvoort media day.

Carlos Sainz is negotiating exclusively with Williams over a contract extension and an announcement could come at any point from Monday, according to Spanish outlet Marca, potentially before the media sessions at Zandvoort on Thursday.

The report also does something more unusual. It pours cold water on the €30 million salary figure that has been circulating since June, and identifies where it came from.

The State of the Negotiation

Marca’s Marco Canseco reports that talks have continued through the shutdown and that Sainz and his management are focused on Williams alone, with the terms rather than the destination being the open question.

The structure under discussion is said to be a single-year extension for 2027. That is short, and deliberately so. Marca notes that a Formula 1 contract has many edges, particularly the clauses that keep a driver’s options open should a better opportunity emerge.

That is a sensible read of Sainz’s position. He is 32, arguably driving at the highest level of his career, and stuck in a car that has gone backwards.

Sainz set out his own timetable before the break. “Honestly I don’t know, I still don’t have a date,” he said. “I’ve always said I would wait for the summer to sit down with my team and think it over and discuss with them, together with James and the rest, the future of the team and my future within it.”

Earlier still, signing off in Hungary: “The plan is to decide, but yes, it has to be looked at calmly.”

The €30 Million Figure Does Not Hold Up

This is the most useful part of the reporting, and it is a caution to anyone repeating driver salary numbers this summer.

Marca traces the €30 million figure to Marc Limacher of Business Book GP, and then argues it is inflated. Sainz’s current deal is reported at around €13 million. An extension will certainly improve on that, but Marca points out that Williams has open financial commitments that make almost tripling his salary implausible.

The outlet is careful to separate the question of merit from the question of feasibility, noting that Sainz is extracting the maximum from the car and more, but that Williams’s finances are what they are.

Marca also dismisses the suggestion that the figure was leaked by Sainz’s own camp, calling it something that does not make much sense.

There is a broader point here. The same journalist is the origin of the reported €40 million figure attached to Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin negotiations, which has similarly been repeated widely without confirmation. Both numbers deserve the same scepticism.

Why Williams Is a Difficult Sell

The team Sainz is being asked to re-commit to is in a worse position than the one he joined.

Williams finished fifth in the 2025 Constructors’ Championship. It sits ninth now, on 11 points, with Sainz on six and Alex Albon on five in the Drivers’ standings. The FW48 has struggled to reach Q2.

The regulation reset was supposed to be Grove’s moment. Instead, as Marca puts it, the setback has been significant not only because the car cannot fight for points but because the team does not fully understand why.

James Vowles has been unusually frank about the strain. “There is probably more work to be done at Williams than at most teams at the moment. I don’t think this is sustainable long-term,” the team principal said this week, describing weeks approaching 100 hours and working every single day of the season so far.

The Audi Question

Marca raises one intriguing constraint: Sainz cannot go to Audi, a destination the report suggests might have appealed to him.

Audi’s line-up is settled. Nico Hülkenberg has committed to the project beyond 2027 and Gabriel Bortoleto is in his second season. With no vacancy there and the top four teams’ seats occupied, Sainz’s realistic market is narrower than his reputation suggests.

That is the context for a one-year deal. It keeps him available if something opens for 2028.

Timing Points to This Week

Marca’s expectation is that any announcement lands before Thursday’s press conferences at the Dutch Grand Prix, sparing Sainz and Vowles a round of evasive answers, but only if the negotiation is fully closed by then.

If it is not, Sainz will spend his first media session after the break being asked about it, which is presumably what both parties want to avoid.

Source: Marca

About the author

Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

Related topics