The 29-year-old Spaniard is viewed by Red Bull as a worthy candidate to replace Sergio Perez, but the reigning champions are in no rush to confirm their 2025 line-up and are still assessing both their incumbent second driver and VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Mercedes are also monitoring Sainz’s availability, but Toto Wolff still has his heart set on three-time champion Max Verstappen and is therefore unwilling to commit at present. Audi, meanwhile, want the Ferrari ace tied down to a long-term deal, but Sauber’s current performance level will be of serious concern to the Spaniard.

Discussing Sainz’s predicament on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Brundle said: “I think Mercedes if Antonelli is ready, they’ll try to put Antonelli in Lewis Hamilton’s seat – Kimi Antonelli, the currently 17-year-old until August. I agree [that] Fernando Alonso stays at Aston Martin.

“Lawrence Stroll is hardly going to biff his son out of there unless he doesn’t want to do it any more, but he looks like he does. Will Perez keep the Red Bull seat? That’s the key, that’s the cork in the bottle. Because putting Sainz in the Red Bull would be a no-brainer for me, or an Aston Martin or a Mercedes-Benz for that matter.

“He’s now got the experience, he’s got the speed, he’s still got youth on his side to an extent. So the problem team Sainz have is that Sauber, let’s call them Audi going forward, are putting him under pressure to do a long-term deal, which means he will then be at Sauber next year.

“[He’ll be] treading water and then hanging all of his chances on how quickly Audi can get their team and their power unit together and become competitive, and that’s no small task. So he could actually go off and have a really serious three or even four seasons with another team and still join Audi when they’re ripe and ready to go.

“But they’re putting him under pressure to sign and I don’t see the other three teams ready to give in to that pressure and sign Sainz. So they’ve got a bit of a stand-off. I think my advice to Carlos and his Dad would be just… things happen very quickly in this business. Two weeks is a very long time in Formula One… just keep your options open.”