The Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz is about to lose his job. He has received three of the group’s final 4 race victories since 2022, however that was not sufficient to maintain his seat subsequent season as a result of Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes can be shifting in.
As 2023 ended, Sainz and his teammate, Charles Leclerc, had been poised to signal new offers with the group. Leclerc signed in late January, however in early February Ferrari revealed that it will be poaching Hamilton from Mercedes, with which he has received six of his seven championships. Sainz can be out after 4 years with the group.
“That it was a little bit of a shock to the entire F1 world is not any information,” he mentioned a couple of weeks later. “It was clearly additionally for me. I’m going to begin the season as robust as I can, placing all my effort into being fast, straight from the go.”
Frédéric Vasseur, the Ferrari group principal, mentioned that telling Sainz he can be dropped was “probably the most troublesome” cellphone calls he’d ever made.
Sainz carried out effectively for Ferrari, however it was Leclerc who completed as runner-up to Crimson Bull’s Max Verstappen in 2022 (Sainz completed fifth), the latest yr the Italian group challenged for the championship. Leclerc, who’s a product of the Ferrari Driver Academy, has additionally cast a status as one of many quickest drivers in System 1. His tally of pole positions, from the place drivers begin races in first place, stands at 23 to Sainz’s 5. Then there was the status for Ferrari in signing a driver as profitable as Hamilton.
Sainz, nevertheless, did precisely as he’d vowed. He began the season with a third-place end within the Bahrain Grand Prix behind the dominant Crimson Bull drivers. However then proper earlier than the following race in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he wanted pressing appendicitis surgical procedure and missed the occasion.
But simply two weeks later, Sainz returned to his Ferrari cockpit in Australia. After “quite a lot of time in mattress recovering,” and utilizing a hyperbaric chamber twice a day and an INDIBA machine to try to improve his therapeutic, Sainz couldn’t solely drive once more, however he received that race.
“Life is a curler coaster generally, however it may be very nice and good to you,” Sainz mentioned after profitable.
He completed third once more to the Crimson Bulls the following trip in Japan and is near Leclerc’s factors whole regardless of having missed a race.
“I believe he’s been doing a tremendous job, this yr significantly,” Hamilton mentioned of Sainz earlier than the Miami race in early Might.
Sainz returned to full health the week earlier than the Miami occasion. Whereas biking within the mountains round Monaco, he lastly registered efficiency “numbers that got here out pretty much as good as they had been earlier than Jeddah.” Sainz can now focus his efforts on discovering a brand new group for 2025.
Sainz has many choices as a result of some drivers at different groups have contracts ending this yr. This consists of Audi, which is taking on what’s presently Stake F1 Group Kick Sauber. Audi is the place his father, Carlos Sainz Sr., a world-champion rally driver, has competed within the Dakar Rally since 2022, profitable in 2024.
“All people is aware of that there’s a high driver that’s obtainable available in the market: It’s Carlos Sainz,” Alessandro Alunni Bravi, a Stake consultant, mentioned on the Miami race this month when discussing his group’s record of doable drivers to fill its remaining 2025 seat.
However, as Audi can be an unproven newcomer, Sainz might favor to hitch one of many two established high groups with free seats subsequent yr: Crimson Bull or Mercedes, as Hamilton’s substitute.
These groups are ready to see if their most well-liked choices — the incumbent driver Sergio Pérez at Crimson Bull and the extremely rated junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes — stay as much as expectations. However Sainz is content material to attend for “folks to make up their minds in lots of areas.”
“The one assurance that I’ve is from myself, that I need to take the best choice,” he mentioned. “That’s why it’s additionally taking a bit longer, and that’s why I need to see all of the choices obtainable.”
