Although ending in heartbreak, Verstappen, racing for his own Verstappen Racing team, made his 24-hour debut at the Nordschleife in May after a series of NLS races throughout 2025 and 2026. At the very top of his non-F1 bucket list, Verstappen has repeatedly expressed a desire to race at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Having already won Le Mans in 2018 and 2019, Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso recently raised the idea of returning alongside Verstappen to the legendary circuit, while reigning world champion Lando Norris has also hinted at a future Le Mans run with McLaren, as the papaya team prepare for their hypercar debut in 2027.

Norris' former McLaren teammate Sainz is now the latest driver to reveal such an ambition, discussing where he sees himself in 10 to 15 years' time with current teammate Alex Albon. Despite scoring two podiums in 2025 with Williams, the Grove team have fallen behind under new regulations, adding to speculation surrounding Sainz's shorter term F1 future.

Speaking on Williams' Team Torque podcast, 31-year-old Sainz said:"I see myself competing in some other category," and when asked by Albon whether he had a 'checklist' of goals, he quickly replied: "I really want to do Le Mans."

While Sainz said his goal would be to compete in the elite hypercar category, he also raised the idea of putting together a fun GT3 team full of friends. He said: "If you put together a good GT3 team that I know I would have fun with, I could have fun with that."

The former Ferrari driver explained that he would relish the opportunity to enjoy racing from a different perspective, away from the responsibilities and pressure of being a modern F1 driver. He added: "I think in the end, it is about enjoying motorsport from a different position from the one we are in today.

Meanwhile, former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes Sainz deserved a harsher penalty than the reduced five-second sanction he received during the Hungarian GP after ruining the race of then leader Oscar Piastri as a back-marker.

Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, Steiner argued that the FIA should have handed Sainz a standard 10-second penalty, insisting the blue flag system failure should not have been treated as a mitigating circumstance because the blue flags were still being shown.

He said: "Nothing would have changed anyway. So just make a point, you know, that you don't do that under whatever software glitch or whatever it is. It's blue flag, they are out there. Get 10 seconds as normally. Don't try mitigating circumstances. Who cares about mitigating circumstances. It was clearly blue flag and 10 seconds. It's standard, and he should have gotten that, and nothing would have changed anyway."