The Spaniard ready to leave the red team in December, the confession about the difficult moments, the rumours about Briatore’s Alpine and what the Prancing Horse is missing
There are still five months to go but Carlos Sainz has felt like an ex-Ferarri man for a long time, ever since the Maranello company announced the hiring of Hamilton who will be Leclerc’s future partner. The Spanish driver confesses his heartfelt feelings in an interview with La Repubblica in which he talks about everything, from the disappointment of being dumped to the future, passing through the relationship with his teammate Leclerc.
Sainz reveals reaction after divorce news
He says his head is in Budapest to try to win, he assures that he will be a 100% Ferrari driver until December (“Whatever happens in the next 5 or 10 years, I drove the red one and I won, a dream that I wouldn’t change for anything”) but admits that he was upset when he was told of the early divorce. Three wins in total with the Prancing Horse where he has been riding since 2021, five podiums so far in this championship, including the victory in Australia about ten days after the emergency appendicitis operation in Jeddah but his head goes back to that day of the announcement: “When they told me that I wouldn’t continue, well yes, I didn’t feel as appreciated as I would have liked. Especially for what I gave to Ferrari: I went to live in Maranello for 4 years, I bought a house, I was in the factory working for this team trying to take it forward to win together”.
Sainz’s disorientation
Sainz admits: “It was a tough two or three months between January and February, I went through a difficult phase with the announcement of Hamilton’s arrival and my future changing. And yet life is like that, it’s a bit of a rollercoaster. I quickly understood the situation, I focused on taking advantage of the fact that I was still in the red overalls. As long as it’s like that, I’ll give it my all. I won’t change the way I work. I started on the podium in Bahrain and I won in Melbourne immediately after the operation, it was a very powerful moment for me and my career. I was pleased to see the team happy for me because they know what I’ve been through. Regrets? I’m sure that if I could go back I would do some things differently or better.. Lessons I will take elsewhere. Now I think about how to win here and then find a home.”
Sainz’s future
Future chapter, Sainz doesn’t commit himself: “It’s a complex decision for these reasons, I look for all these things and not one more than the other. They are fundamental factors and for this reason I need time, more than people hoped, to analyze the market, teams and people. When I have all the right elements, I will decide. I haven’t done it yet and I don’t know if it will happen before the summer break. I know I have various teams on hold and I thank them for their patience, but I have to have it too. This sport has taught me to be a little more selfish and to choose the best without rushing. Alpine? From the beginning all the teams that didn’t have reconfirmed drivers were an option, so Alpine was there too, it didn’t come in at the last minute. Mercedes and Red Bull? You have to ask them.”
A summer all in Spain
His personal moment in F1 is a bit out of place compared to Spain’s triumphs in other sports: “Beautiful days, which took a lot of my time, which is also why I didn’t think about my future: European Football Championship, Alcaraz at Wimbledon, Sergio Garcia in golf, the grand finale of the Sail GP in San Francisco. We have the mentality of never giving up and pushing to the max to make our dreams come true. We 25-30 year olds, but also a Lamine Yamal who at 17 is so mature, we were lucky enough to grow up watching a generation of phenomena like Alonso, Nadal, Xabi Alonso, Xavi Iniesta, Pau Gasol. Points of reference, examples, teachers. We younger ones want to be like them”.
The relationship with Leclerc
Sainz doesn’t hide when asked about his relationship with Leclerc: “Our relationship hasn’t changed. We’ve been teammates for four years and if you look at our history there have been a couple of episodes in the championship where we didn’t agree on the track or something happened to us. It’s simply part of racing and being a team where both drivers do the qualifying lap within two tenths and start next to each other. Obviously there are situations where you find yourself in a position to fight for positions and that’s where our competitiveness leads us to compare ourselves and not always be of the same opinion on some things. It happensbut then we go home together, we talk, we clarify and forget. What is missing for Ferrari to get back to the top? Two or three tenths. We talk about nothing and everything: losing them prevents you from fighting. Our rivals have developed their cars well, but we have not been able to find performance with our developments. Here we have a small change to the bottom to solve the problems of the last races”.
Source: sport.virgilio.it
