The Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz is about to lose his job. He has received three of the workforce’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 shall be shifting in.
As 2023 ended, Sainz and his teammate, Charles Leclerc, have been poised to signal new offers with the workforce. 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 could be out after 4 years with the workforce.
“That it was a little bit of a shock to the entire F1 world is not any information,” he stated a number of weeks later. “It was clearly additionally for me. I’m going to start out the season as robust as I can, placing all my effort into being fast, straight from the go.”
Frédéric Vasseur, the Ferrari workforce principal, stated that telling Sainz he could be dropped was “one of the crucial tough” cellphone calls he’d ever made.
Sainz carried out effectively for Ferrari, however it was Leclerc who completed as runner-up to Pink Bull’s Max Verstappen in 2022 (Sainz completed fifth), the latest 12 months the Italian workforce challenged for the championship. Leclerc, who’s a product of the Ferrari Driver Academy, has additionally solid a repute as one of many quickest drivers in Formulation 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, nonetheless, did precisely as he’d vowed. He began the season with a third-place end within the Bahrain Grand Prix behind the dominant Pink Bull drivers. However then proper earlier than the subsequent 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 “numerous time in mattress recovering,” and utilizing a hyperbaric chamber twice a day and an INDIBA machine to attempt to improve his therapeutic, Sainz couldn’t solely drive once more, however he received that race.
“Life is a curler coaster typically, however it may be very nice and good to you,” Sainz stated after profitable.
He completed third once more to the Pink Bulls the subsequent day out in Japan and is near Leclerc’s factors complete regardless of having missed a race.
“I believe he’s been doing an incredible job, this 12 months notably,” Hamilton stated of Sainz earlier than the Miami race in early Could.
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 nearly as good as they have been earlier than Jeddah.” Sainz can now focus his efforts on discovering a brand new workforce for 2025.
Sainz has many choices as a result of some drivers at different groups have contracts ending this 12 months. This consists of Audi, which is taking on what’s presently Stake F1 Crew 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, stated on the Miami race this month when discussing his workforce’s record of doable drivers to fill its remaining 2025 seat.
However, as Audi shall be an unproven newcomer, Sainz might want to hitch one of many two established high groups with free seats subsequent 12 months: Pink Bull or Mercedes, as Hamilton’s alternative.
These groups are ready to see if their most popular choices — the incumbent driver Sergio Pérez at Pink 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 proper determination,” he stated. “That’s why it’s additionally taking a bit longer, and that’s why I need to see all of the choices obtainable.”