Williams’ Carlos Sainz has weighed up post-F1 life by revealing ambitions to compete within the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Spaniard is the most recent in a rising checklist of F1 drivers to precise curiosity in competing in endurance racing, significantly after Max Verstappen’s latest exploits on the Nurburgring.
Though ending in heartbreak, Verstappen, racing for his personal Verstappen Racing workforce, made his 24-hour debut on the Nordschleife in Might after a sequence of NLS races all through 2025 and 2026. On the very high of his non-F1 bucket checklist, Verstappen has repeatedly expressed a need to race on the Le Mans 24 Hours.
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Having already gained Le Mans in 2018 and 2019, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso not too long ago raised the concept of returning alongside Verstappento the legendary circuit, whereas reigning world champion Lando Norris has additionally hinted at a future Le Mans run with McLaren, because the papaya workforce put together for his or her hypercar debut in 2027.
Sainz weighs up future Le Mans run
Photograph: Race Photos
Norris’ former McLaren teammate Sainz is now the most recent driver to disclose such an ambition, discussing the place he sees himself in 10 to fifteen years’ time with present teammate Alex Albon. Regardless of scoring two podiums in 2025 with Williams, the Grove workforce have fallen behind below new laws, including to hypothesis surrounding Sainz’s shorter time period F1 future.
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Talking on Williams’ Crew Torque podcast, 31-year-old Sainz mentioned:”I see myself competing in another class,” and when requested by Albon whether or not he had a ‘guidelines’ of targets, he shortly replied: “I actually need to do Le Mans.”
Whereas Sainz mentioned his aim can be to compete within the elite hypercar class, he additionally raised the concept of placing collectively a enjoyable GT3 workforce stuffed with associates. He mentioned: “If you happen to put collectively a very good GT3 workforce that I do know I’d have enjoyable with, I may have enjoyable with that.”
The previous Ferrari driver defined that he would relish the chance to get pleasure from racing from a special perspective, away from the duties and strain of being a contemporary F1 driver. He added: “I feel in the long run, it’s about having fun with motorsport from a special place from the one we’re in at present.
“Now we’ve got a duty, we’ve got strain and we’ve got a workforce to face up for and ship outcomes, however sooner or later we may simply do it for ourselves.
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“Motorsport for pure enjoyment, which I truly suppose is the best sport to do, drive a automobile as quick as you possibly can round a circuit, and do it with your pals and evaluate your self. And perhaps educate a few of your pals.”
Photograph: Race Photos
In the meantime, former Haas workforce principal Guenther Steiner believes Sainz deserved a harsher penalty than the decreased five-second sanction he acquired throughout the Hungarian GP after ruining the race of then chief Oscar Piastri as a back-marker.
Talking on the Crimson Flags podcast, Steiner argued that the FIA ought to have handed Sainz a normal 10-second penalty, insisting the blue flag system failure shouldn’t have been handled as a mitigating circumstance as a result of the blue flags have been nonetheless being proven.
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He mentioned: “Nothing would have modified anyway. So simply make some extent, you already know, that you do not try this below no matter software program glitch or no matter it’s. It is blue flag, they’re on the market. Get 10 seconds as usually. Do not attempt mitigating circumstances. Who cares about mitigating circumstances. It was clearly blue flag and 10 seconds. It is normal, and he ought to have gotten that, and nothing would have modified anyway.”
