Sainz has to make way for Hamilton
Expelled Ferrari driver speaks out
February 2, 2024, 9:42 a.m
In the last Formula 1 season, Carlos Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a Grand Prix. However, because Lewis Hamilton will be moving to Ferrari, the Spaniard will have to leave the Scuderia at the end of this season. His first reaction to this is brief.
The message can actually be summarized in one sentence, in eleven words: There will be no more place for Carlos Sainz at Ferrari from 2025. With the sensational signing of Lewis Hamilton, the two cockpits have been taken for the immediate future; after all, Charles Leclerc extended his long-term contract with Scuderia a few days ago. Sainz may also have hoped to drive for the team from Maranello over the coming season. But now the Spaniard has to reschedule at short notice and come to terms with the certainty that he will be replaced at the end of the year.
His first public statement on this was brief. “Scuderia Ferrari and I will go our separate ways after the 2024 season,” writes the 29-year-old on Instagram in a trilingual post in English, Spanish and Italian. “We have a long season ahead of us and, as always, I will give my absolute best for the team and for the Tifosi around the world.” The fourth Ferrari year will be his last; so far he has won two Grand Prix victories for the iconic team from Maranello: the first of his career at Silverstone in 2022 and the only non-Red Bull victory of the season in Singapore in 2023.
Sainz to Mercedes?
In 2024 he will now have 24 chances to achieve further triumphs and recommend himself for new tasks. His qualities are undisputed, but the really great heroic deeds for Ferrari failed to materialize. In the last race of last season, he fell from fourth place to seventh place in the Drivers’ World Championship, his weakest overall placement since 2018. He then moved from Renault to McLaren before joining Ferrari in 2021 as Sebastian Vettel’s successor. Sainz leaves it open as to what will happen next: “I will announce news about my future in due course.”
The Scuderia itself, the only Formula 1 team since 1950, initially did not comment on Sainz in its announcements. She was “pleased to announce that Lewis Hamilton will be joining the team from 2025 on a multi-year contract,” it said. Only then did a picture of Sainz follow on Instagram with the words: “We still have one season to do our best together.” It remains to be seen what will follow for the Spaniard and whether he will find a role as a regular driver in Formula 1 elsewhere. The most obvious solution at the moment would be to switch to Mercedes – as a successor to your own successor, so to speak.