Sainz aims to speed up talks for 2025 F1 seat

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz said he wanted to speed up talks with Formula One teams for a seat next season and hoped to resolve his future sooner than later.

The only driver to have beaten dominant Red Bull since 2022, with his most recent victory coming in Australia last month, Sainz is being replaced by seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton at the end of the season.

Sainz told reporters ahead of Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix that he was talking to various teams "because that’s what my management team and myself should do when I don’t have a job for next year yet.

"It’s just a matter of obviously going more into detail and seeing the more realistic options, and what are the best options for me and for my future," he added.

"The only thing I would say is that obviously it’s time now to speed up a bit everything and hopefully we can get it sorted sooner rather than later."

More than half the current grid is out of contract at the end of the year, with a potential vacancy at champions Red Bull alongside triple champion Max Verstappen and Mercedes looking for a replacement for Hamilton.

Sauber, who will become Audi in 2026, are another possibility.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton said that retired four-times Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel would be an "amazing option" for Mercedes as they look to fill the Briton's seat next season.

Vettel, 36, told Sky Sports television on Wednesday that he was "potentially" in the market for a 2025 comeback and was talking to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and others.

"I would love for Seb to come back and I think he would be an amazing option for the team," Hamilton, who joins Ferrari next season, told a press conference at the Suzuka Circuit ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.

He said the German driver would be good fit for the German manufacturer and that Vettel's racing pedigree and values would push forward a team trying to revive the form that delivered seven back-to-back drivers championships between 2014 and 2020.

Mercedes last had a German driver with Nico Rosberg, who retired after winning the 2016 world championship