Will Carlos Sainz Join Audi in 2026?

Jul.7 - In the middle of a tumultuous Ferrari season, and with no contract lined up past 2024, rumors have been flying about Carlos Sainz’s future in Formula One. The Spanish driver, who has finished 5th in each of the last two Drivers’ Championships, could be on the radar of F1’s newest team, Audi.

Set to join the grid in 2026, replacing Alfa Romeo as Sauber’s strategic partner, Sainz moving to Audi would be a huge get for a team that has already made a major impact in other disciplines of motorsport. And it doesn’t hurt that their managing director Andreas Seidl is already well acquainted with the Ferrari driver, having been his team boss at McLaren in 2019 and 2020. 

But, will Sainz join Audi? The answer, as of now, is a resounding ‘maybe’. Sainz is adamant that there has been no contact between him and the Audi team and his priority is to negotiate a new deal this winter to stay at Ferrari long-term. 

“My priority, and my main goal, is to win one day with Ferrari. And I think I’ve made that clear, very, very often. And that’s why I will give my priority to them this winter,” said Sainz.

But, a new contract at Ferrari is far from a guarantee. Scuderia are having a disappointing follow-up to a strong 2022 campaign, and currently find themselves languishing in 4th place behind Aston Martin, Mercedes, and Red Bull. 

Sainz himself has also not been able to replicate the same success either. Through 10 races, he has a respectable 83 points, good enough for 5th in the drivers’ standings. That’s a far cry from his 2022 numbers, when he had 127 points, including a race win at Silverstone, at this point on the calendar. While Sainz has not retired from a single race, he has yet to record a podium finish and only finished top four once. 

Sportsbooks don’t predict things getting much better for Sainz and Scuderia. FanDuel has the odds of Ferrari finishing in second place at +220, well behind Mercedes at -130. At a whopping +7000, Sainz himself has the 5th best odds to finish as the Drivers’ Championship winner without Max Verstappen, behind Sergio Perez, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, and his teammate Charles Leclerc. 

Over at Overtime Heroics, their list of the best betting sites in the USA has many options for those interested in betting on F1.

Despite his wish to stay at Ferrari and denial of the ongoing Audi rumors, Sainz certainly doesn’t seem to have closed the door on a possible switch to the German manufacturer in the future.

“I don’t know if it’s clickbait or maybe smaller journalists trying to bring a story to gain notoriety and make their smaller page more successful because they can say: ‘I was the first one to say Carlos was at Audi in 2026,” said Sainz. “It doesn’t mean I will go, or will not go, it’s impossible to say.” 

If he does decide to team up with Audi, Sainz will be joining an organization with a long history of success in motorsport, even if it hasn’t been in Formula One. In the World Rally Championship, Audi was the team to beat in the early 1980s, winning an astounding 23 races between 1981 and 1985 along with two Constructors Championships on the back of one the greatest rally cars ever built, the Audi Quattro. 

In more recent years, they put together one of the greatest dynasties in the history of the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning 13 titles between 2000 and 2014. Their success, along with that of Porsche, has long led to rumors of the Volkswagen Group joining Formula One behind one of their flagship sports car brands. Now, with Audi in 2026, it’s finally happening.

Sainz isn’t the only driver who’s been linked to the German giants. Other drivers whose names have been floating around the rumor mill include Mick Schumacher, former Haas driver and son of F1 icon Michael Schumacher as well as Lando Norris, current McLaren driver who has also worked with Andreas Seidl in the past. 

At the end of the day, it’s just too early to say whether Carlos Sainz will be joining Audi for the 2026 season. His priority currently seems to be negotiating a contract extension with Ferrari this winter, but the former McLaren and Torro Rosso (now known as AlphaTauri) driver hasn’t ruled out of the idea of joining forces with F1’s newest power supplier. 

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