The Spaniard is weighing up offers he has from Sauber/Audi and Williams for next season, with the door now officially closed on a move to Red Bull, and understood to be shut at Mercedes too.
Wild speculation in the Spanish media on Thursday suggested that Sainz had made his decision and that a contract had been signed.
But speaking ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, Sainz said that was far from reality – and took aim at false claims about who he would be driving for next season.
“The only thing I can tell you is there is nothing locked in,” explained the Spaniard.
“I've seen reports in the media – and I don't know if it's in Spain – of people saying I've signed. But when you look at those things, it makes me laugh.
“I remember seeing reports three months ago that I had signed for Mercedes. Reports that I had signed for Red Bull.
“Now obviously those places are not going to happen, so it’s just funny that people say I’ve signed for Williams.
“It makes me laugh, knowing that sometimes this goes a bit unpunished in a way for some media reports.
“I can just tell you that obviously it concerns me that people can get away with that kind of stuff without [consequences] or anything like that.”
Sainz said he was happy with the options he had on the table for 2025, but admitted the potential shake-up for 2026 made it a ‘lottery’ to work out what was best for his long-term future.
“For me, 2025 is equally important to 2026. Why? Because I think 2026 is a lottery,” he said.
“So, I could go somewhere to any of the options that I have on top of the table and be successful or not. And even one of the top teams could nail it or not.
“I think '26, very honestly speaking, it's impossible to find out. So given that, after everything I've seen, '26 is almost impossible to predict who's going to be on top.
“'25 is almost a bit more certain who's going to be where and you can more or less know and predict where they're going to be.”
While the chances of a Red Bull seat in 2025 officially vanished this week as the squad announced a new deal with Sergio Perez, Sainz said it was not news for him that had no chance at the Milton Keynes-based outfit.
“I already knew for a while, obviously, so nothing new for me,” he said.
“Obviously, on my personal conversations with the team, this was something I knew for a long time now. So yeah, nothing to say, nothing to add.
“Still, plenty of options on the table. So, everything goes.”
And while Sainz could be forgiven for feeling he deserved a better chance of a top seat based on his race-winning form for Ferrari, he said he was wise enough knowing how F1 worked that it did not annoy him.
“There's no real frustration,” he said. “It’s Formula 1.
“It's been part of Formula 1 and there’s so many other things involved inside the teams that it is obviously always complicated to understand the dynamics of Formula 1 when you see it from the outside.
“But when you see it from the inside, everyone has a reason to take the decisions they have taken.
“In Spain we say “everyday bread’, which I've been seeing in Formula 1 for so many years.”
Watch: The Future of Formula One - First Look at The 2026 F1 Regulations
