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Carlos Sainz is being heavily linked with a move to Audi, and the Formula 1 paddock is starting to worry about Nico Hulkenberg’s future.
James Vowles’ project at Williams has not gone to plan in 2026 as the team are struggling at the back of the grid, despite focusing their development in 2025 on the new regulations.
Reports are suggesting that Sainz is dissatisfied with Williams and is looking for a way out of the team. He is free to leave in 2026 through an exit clause in his contract, and Audi is being heavily touted as his destination.
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Williams will try everything to keep Sainz on board for the future, but rumours are rife about his frustration with the team’s 2026 car and lack of progress.
The Spaniard had been linked with Audi when it was clear that he was leaving Ferrari in 2025. It is said that Sainz is now starting to listen to his father, who had been pushing his son to sign for the German manufacturer instead of Williams.
Audi’s current drivers, Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, have contracts until 2027, but there are some doubts around the future of the former.
Hulkenberg clashed with Mattia Binotto in Miami amid the team’s power struggles, which saw Jonathan Wheatley leave for Aston Martin. Journalist Ralf Bach suspects the German driver is facing problems with the ongoing political trouble in the team
“And at Audi, I get the feeling anyway that there might be a bit too much political manoeuvring going on again,” he said via F1-Insider.
“There are a few signs that, well, there’s the Swiss group, and then there are the Germans. I don’t yet have the impression that things are being pulled together, and I reckon, well, maybe Nico Hulkenberg is even starting to run into problems because of this.
“I don’t really think that’s the case with the team management anymore – particularly with Binotto, that’s my feeling – and it’s a bit like what you hear in the corridors, that he’s not quite as popular as he perhaps was last year. So I think he needs to be a bit careful.”
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Colleague Bianca Garloff then discussed Sainz’s future and his connections to Binotto from his Ferrari days. She says that there has been ‘talk in the paddock’ that Hulkenberg could potentially make way for the Williams driver before his contract expires.
“You do hear that Carlos Sainz is unhappy at Williams, and it seems that Carlos Sainz might finally be starting to listen to his father, who wanted to bring him to Audi last year, and the year before that.
“And who was it who brought him to Ferrari back then? It was Mattia Binotto. And Nico Hulkenberg – let’s not forget that – was already at Audi when Binotto arrived. Which means he was sort of foisted on him.
“Bortoletto was then the first driver that Binotto himself brought in, and, well, there’s a bit of talk in the paddock that things might well get a bit tight for Hulkenberg too, even though he has a contract that runs until the end of next year. But also, as we know in Formula 1, contracts ultimately count for nothing.”
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