Spanish rally driver Carlos Sainz Sr has urged his son to sign to a new F1 team as soon as possible.
It comes after Ferrari driver, Sainz Jr, admitted he’s had to sit out of meetings and hasn’t been involved with simulator sessions developing the car for 2025, ahead of his exit at the end of the season.
“It is obvious now that they are not going to put me in the meetings of next year’s car,” he said ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix. “If they do, they’re probably not being very clever, because they know I’m going to be somewhere else.
“I’m not attending the simulator sessions of the development of next year’s car, and I’m not attending meetings of next year’s car.”
Back in February the team signed a multi-year deal with seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, leaving Sainz looking for other options.
He currently sits in fourth place in the drivers’ championship this season, having won the Australian GP despite having his appendix removed 16 days prior in Saudia Arabia.
The former Renault driver was set to announce his next move, with Williams and Audi linked but delayed, telling reporters in Austria he would announce in due course when ‘the time is right’.
Speaking at the Extreme E Hydrogen car launch in London, Sainz Sr exclusively told talkSPORT he was unaware of what direction his son would be going in.
“I have no idea where he’ll go, but I’m sure he’s looking at all the possibilities.
“Hopefully he’ll choose soon so he can concentrate on this season and get the best results possible.”
Sainz Jr, 29, follows in the footsteps of his father, who holds two World Rally Championship drivers titles, and, at 62 years old, currently drives for Acciona Sainz XE in Extreme E, the electric SUV off-road racing series, with the help of his son.
A number of other big names in motorsport are involved, with former F1 world champions Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton all having backed teams in the first four years since its inception.
It was announced at an event in London that the electronic series would be moving to hydrogen-powered vehicles in 2025, renamed as Extreme H, and in partnership with Red Bull.
Sainz Sr says that there’ll be some new tests to navigate by using hydrogen-fuelled cells to help grow the competition.
“Extreme E was always a challenge, Extreme H is going to be a bigger one. It’s going to be the first championship powered by hydrogen, we are evolving and there are a lot of engineers who will be working hard to make this happen.
“To also have such an important brand like Red Bull involved, it’s the best news.”
Extreme E began as a project in 2018 by former QPR chairman, Alejandro Agag, and the late racing driver, Gil de Ferran.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Agag said the new move will help align the sustainability goals the championship aims to achieve.
“This technology is really unknown to the general public. It can change a lot of things, it can make a difference in CO2 emissions around the world. It’s going to be trial and error, but without it wouldn’t be fun, and everyone would be doing it.
“That’s why motorsport can play a role in facing these challenges – not only inside the cars, but with refuelling, and the way we transport cargo, in a safe way.”
The SUV’s and freight are carried to racing destinations across all corners of the globe, reducing emission by more than 75 per cent compared to air transport.
It is also used as accommodation for those working in the sport, including drivers and engineers.
The Extreme E season will continue this summer, with the Hyrdo X-Prix in Scotland on the 13 July, and conclude in the United States in November, before re-launching the new Pioneer 25 hydrogen-fuelled car next season.
