Former F1 driver Marc Surer has revealed he had conversations with Carlos Sainz Senior about the Spaniard’s son’s move to Williams for F1 2025.

Carlos Sainz has moved to Williams for the F1 2025 season, having spent a large portion of 2024 in conversation with several teams about his future after Ferrari signed Lewis Hamilton to take his seat.

Marc Surer: Carlos Sainz “would have taken” a Mercedes seat

With Sainz’s stock riding high as the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race in 2023, as well as taking victory early in 2024 at the Australian Grand Prix, the Spaniard could afford to take his time and deliberate on the best course of action for his career as his Ferrari tenure wound down.

With unconfirmed seats at Mercedes and Red Bull, the possibility of signing with one of the recent World Champion teams seemed likely – only for his Red Bull prospect to disappear when Sergio Perez was given a contract extension, while Mercedes talks quickly broke down.

Sainz had sought a quick resolution to his Mercedes prospects, quicker than the team had in mind as it deliberated over its options to replace Lewis Hamilton, leading to Sainz being quickly ruled out of contention.

With Mercedes eventually plumping for its junior driver Kimi Antonelli to succeed Hamilton, taking a calculated risk on the young Italian, former F1 driver Marc Surer has revealed how Sainz’s father – ralling and Dakar legend Carlos Sainz Senior – had told him that the Mercedes decision hadn’t been “logical”.

Previously, Mercedes had sought to place junior drivers at another team in order to gain some experience before being promoted to Mercedes – like it did with George Russell as he spent three seasons with Williams – and Surer said following the same model might have made more sense with Antonelli, leaving the door open for Sainz to join.

“We talked about the opportunities he had,” Surer said on the Formel1.de YouTube channel.

“Red Bull was certainly one because he started at Toro Rosso. He would have taken a Mercedes seat.

“At Mercedes, why take the risk now with the very young one when you would have had the chance to place him at Williams like you did with Russell? I agree with Carlos’ father – that’s not logical.”

In September 2024, F1-Insider journalist Ralf Bach revealed that Sainz Senior had been left perplexed over Mercedes signing of Antonelli – particularly after the rookie driver crashed Russell’s W15 minutes into his first practice session at Monza.

“There were people who didn’t think it was that funny,” Bach said.

“For example, Carlos Sainz Sr told me that he doesn’t know how he celebrated after he drove a car into the wall in his first Formula 1 practice session.

“He also said it’s crazy that he has this carte blanche to destroy practically everything and still have the support.”

Sky Germany journalist Sacha Roos believes Mercedes team boss had his own reasons for overlooking Sainz in favour of Antonelli.

“If I were Mercedes, I would have chosen and signed Sainz – and pushed Antonelli over to Williams for the time being,” he said.

“There are certainly internal reasons why Toto Wolff decided this way.”

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