“I’m still jobless for next year, so I guess this is good for me.” – That’s what Carlos Sainz said after he won the 2024 Australian Grand Prix. And it’s kind of a shame that he still is. Sainz is in a race against time to secure his future in Formula 1. When Ferrari announced that Lewis Hamilton would replace Carlos in 2025, we knew that the Spanish driver would need to have a stellar 2024 season to secure a race seat with another top team, like Mercedes, Red Bull, or even Aston Martin.

And while Sainz has delivered some of the best performances of his career so far, he is not any closer to securing his place on the grid. He is farther away than he was in Australia because Fernando Alonso has now signed a multi-year contract extension with Aston Martin, closing that door shut for the Spaniard. With fewer options remaining, Carlos Sainz needs to maximize every single weekend and keep beating his teammates to force Red Bull and Mercedes to take him seriously. And he doesn’t have the whole season to do that because those teams can announce their second drivers any time now.

However, after scoring a podium in every race (except Saudi Arabia), including a win, the Chinese Grand Prix could prove to be a tricky one for Sainz as we now have the early weather forecast for the weekend and rain can be an unexpected guest at the Shanghai International Circuit. Rain is predicted to hit the track late on Friday night till Saturday morning, which means the Sprint race on Saturday morning and even the qualifying session following that could be chaotic. That is not something Carlos needs right now.

Even without the rain, the Chinese GP was going to be difficult for everyone because of the lack of experience in the last 4 years. And to make matters worse, the track has been resurfaced at many places, so any past data the teams might have become irrelevant for this year’s race.

With time and options both running out quickly, what should be the next course of action for the Spanish driver?

Should Carlos Sainz take a year off from Formula 1?

After his win in Australia, Sainz was looking in a strong position with Christian Horner showing interest in him for the second Red Bull seat. However, with Sergio Perez finishing 2nd behind his teammate Max Verstappen in three out of four races so far, he might just convince Red Bull to extend his contract. After all, Horner has said multiple times that the seat is Checo’s to lose. And if Checo can help the team win both championships with ease, there is no need for Red Bull to consider Carlos Sainz.

And it’s the exact opposite of Mercedes. Sainz might not want to go there because Toto Wolff is only looking for a short-term driver as he wants to get the Mercedes prodigy, Kimi Antonelli, into the team as soon as possible. And that’s exactly why the former Ferrari boss, Peter Windsor, has said that Sainz should take a year off from the sport instead of going to a midfield team.

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“If he [Carlos Sainz] does have to sort of write off 2025, in a way that would be a good year for him to sort of rebuild his style a little bit and just capitalize on everything he’s just done,” Windsor said in a recent Live chat on his YouTube channel as he urged Sainz to improve himself. “But then shorten his corners because he definitely has long corners, he uses more road over a race distance than Charles Leclerc.”

Should Carlos Sainz take Windsor’s advice and take a sabbatical from Formula 1? Share your thoughts on the matter.