Carlos Sainz has revealed he was assured by Ferrari he would get a brand new contract earlier than the group made the shock choice to signal Lewis Hamilton in his place for the 2025 Method 1 season.
Ferrari made a blockbuster transfer for seven-time world champion Hamilton at the start of 2024, pairing him up with Charles Leclerc from this season onwards in a multi-year deal.
The transfer got here on the expense of Sainz, who had carried out admirably alongside Leclerc since becoming a member of Ferrari from McLaren in 2021.
Sainz had typically spoken concerning the shock he obtained after being advised Ferrari wouldn’t renew his contract and the way he took solace from the truth that he misplaced his seat to one of many biggest F1 drivers of all time.
Nevertheless, the Spaniard has now shed contemporary mild on the state of affairs, revealing that he had been advised a brand new contract was a mere formality going into the 2024 season.
“I feel it was across the finish of January or February [when the news broke],” he mentioned on the Excessive Efficiency podcast.
“I used to be in the course of my coaching preparation for the 2024 season. I used to be hopeful that the Ferrari was going to be a aggressive automotive. I had accomplished the whole lot in December and January clearly to organize myself for that season.
“Contract negotiations with Ferrari had been a bit stalled in a bizarre method as a result of we had been speaking since October [2023] to resume my contract and so they stored suspending the purpose of signing and the purpose of coming to an settlement.
“However I by no means felt suspicious, I all the time felt like they had been simply busy with one thing else.
“I by no means felt prefer it was not going to occur as a result of each suggestions I used to be getting was, ‘We’re gonna proceed, for certain. That is simply gonna take a few hours to comply with the economics facet of issues and the 2 or three issues we have to agree on, in your future contract. However it’ll be a simple contract and we’ll do it in a short time.’
“I used to be like, ‘Okay, okay, no worries’.
“So I went into the winter with that mentality of: it can get sorted earlier than race one of many 2024 season.
“And all of a sudden in the course of January, finish of January, I obtain a cellphone name and so they all of a sudden inform me the information. I heard from a pal that referred to as me, and I used to be fully shocked.
“I went from believing I used to be going to be in Ferrari for some time, nonetheless extra [years], to all of a sudden now I am out of Ferrari. ‘Lewis is changing me. What am I going to do now?’”
Sainz admitted that it took time to course of the choice, particularly because it left him with no clear vacation spot for 2025.
Nevertheless, regardless of the uncertainty brought on by not having a contract in his place, Sainz made an unimaginable begin to the 2024 season, ending on the rostrum within the Bahrain season opener and profitable the Australian Grand Prix from the entrance row simply weeks after an appendicitis surgical procedure.
The 30-year-old mentioned the information of his impending departure from Ferrari helped unleash the most effective model of him as a driver.
“It by no means occurred to me that that might occur and it was a bit stunning,” he recalled. “It took me week to simply accept it and to assimilate it.
“You by no means get an excessive amount of of a response from me, I’m fairly level-headed in that sense, however that gave me a little bit of a kick.
“It made me a greater athlete, a greater driver. What got here out of me in March, April, Could was in all probability the most effective model of myself as a racing driver thus far.”
