Carlos Sainz names the driver he’s backing to win 2025 title after he leaves Ferrari

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Carlos Sainz may miss the chance to compete for the world championship in 2025. The Spaniard is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season and he may drop into the midfield.

Sainz remains a contender to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. Given the Silver Arrows’ recent progress, he could have a shot at the title at Brackley.

Having failed to score a single podium across the first eight races, Toto Wolff’s team have now achieved five in a row. That run includes back-to-back victories for George Russell and Hamilton in Austria and Great Britain.

Ferrari will also believe they can mount a challenge. They appear to have gone in the wrong direction with their SF-24, but they will hope to build on the promise they showed in the spring – the Scuderia were only 24 points behind Red Bull after Charles Leclerc won in Monaco.

Given that Christian Horner is reluctant to reunite Sainz and Max Verstappen, a move to Mercedes is his only hope of remaining at the front of the grid. If not, he’s likely to end up at either Alpine or Williams – two of the bottom three in the constructors’.

Verstappen’s 76-point lead over Lando Norris likely precludes a genuine fight for the drivers’ title this year. But 2025 is already shaping up to be an epic campaign as the natural convergence at the end of the ruleset continues.

Carlos Sainz backs Max Verstappen to win 2025 world championship

Speaking to Spanish GQ, Sainz predicted that Verstappen would win the title both this year and next year. That’s despite the progress made by his rivals in recent times.

Indeed, the Dutchman has now gone three races without a victory for the first time since the end of the 2021 season. McLaren appear to have the strongest package on the grid as it stands.

But Sainz maintains that Verstappen is likely to be a five-time world champion when a new era begins in 2026. Only Michael Schumacher, Hamilton and Juan Manuel-Fangio have achieved this feat.

While he’s previously gone up against the likes of Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo, Verstappen now has a teammate he can comfortably beat in Sergio Perez. And even if Red Bull make a change, Liam Lawson and co. are unlikely to mount a concerted challenge.

“I had a good first year in Formula 1 in 2015,” Sainz said. “Maybe back then it was not yet known, people did not fully realise the talent and great potential that [Toro Rosso teammate] Max had as a driver and what he has become.

“He is a three-time world champion, on his way to his fourth and I would even dare to say his fifth, if Red Bull continues like this. We have to value that first year I had against him and how things went.”

How Helmut Marko could stop Verstappen leaving Red Bull

Verstappen’s clear supremacy within Red Bull could be the decisive advantage. Drivers at McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes are all taking points off one another.

Indeed, Oscar Piastri denied Norris in Hungary, and Damon Hill has predicted that Leclerc may be quicker than Hamilton in qualifying. If Mercedes sign Kimi Antonelli rather than Sainz, then perhaps Russell would be well-placed too.

Assuming he stays put over the winter, Verstappen will have a decision to make come the end of 2025. His former trainer believes he could leave Red Bull if he sees a better chance of winning elsewhere in a new generation of cars.

Up to this point, he’s retained a contractual option to depart if Helmut Marko leaves his post. But Marko has now signed a new deal and agreed to remove the clause binding their futures together.