It was always hard to shake off the impression that Red Bull didn’t quite take Carlos Sainz Jnr seriously enough during his spell in their Junior Team.
Back in 2014 the Red Bull-backed Sainz was on his way to an emphatic victory in Formula Renault 3.5, a championship arguably on a par with GP2 (now Formula 2) at the time. Yet Red Bull initially passed him over for promotion to Toro Rosso after plucking Max Verstappen out of Formula 3.It was only when Sebastian Vettel shocked Red Bull by leaving the team later that year that an opportunity opened up for Sainz to make his F1 debut. Daniil Kvyat was promoted from Toro Rosso, leaving a vacant spot alongside Verstappen which Sainz slotted into.
Verstappen scored the majority of points between the two Toro Rosso rookies in 2015 but Sainz suffered greater losses from the car’s poor reliability. They were only team mates for four more races at the beginning of 2016 before Verstappen was promoted to Red Bull.
While none would argue Verstappen has failed to justify Red Bull’s faith in him, perhaps they should have looked a little more closely at the guy he left behind. After all when Sainz was reunited with the considerably more experienced Daniil Kvyat, the outcome was extremely one-sided. Sainz out-scored Kvyat by 90 points to eight over their year-and-a-half together.
There were outward signs of friction between the Sainz and Red Bull camps. In mid-2017 he remarked he was “unlikely” to spend a fourth consecutive season at Toro Rosso – a reasonable observation, given that no one ever had – and was slapped down for it.
“This is not a decision for Carlos Sainz,” said Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost. “He has a Red Bull contract and Red Bull decides what they will do in the future.” Sainz left Toro Rosso before the end of the year, loaned out to Renault.
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But instead of recalling him back from Renault, Pierre Gasly was promoted on the basis of a promising half-season at Toro Rosso. It’s a decision which does not look good in retrospect: Gasly was sent back to Toro Rosso halfway through last year.
In the meantime Sainz split from Red Bull, joined McLaren and thrived. He was the star of the midfield last year, scored McLaren’s first podium for five seasons and finished as the top driver outside the ‘big three’ teams. With, it should be noted, more points than Gasly and his successor Alexander Albon achieved during their combined stints at Red Bull.
Now, Red Bull’s loss is Ferrari’s gain. And once again Sainz has Vettel to thank. His departure from Red Bull set in motion Sainz’s promotion to F1, and now Sainz will take his seat at Ferrari.
Which will give him the chance to demonstrate to Red Bull why they should have paid more attention to him.
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2021 F1 season
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- Abu Dhabi’s legacy one year on: How the controversial 2021 finale changed F1
Mark Russell (@heming49)
14th May 2020, 12:52
Spoiler alert: being fast and reliable.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
14th May 2020, 13:28
Not really, quite the opposite. He is incredibly clever, just as sharp as his father.
I think Peter Windsor put it best so I won’t repeat his words.
He has had crashes blunders, he has been beaten up by Max, Hulk and a rookie, but he manages to keep as his everlasting memory, the positive races he has done and manages to shine the light on himself, always.
In the past 30 years Ferrari have hired, established race winners or promising drivers, some more promising than others.
Alesi, irvine looked quick back then, so did Rubens, massa was controversial at first but all won races for Ferrari.
Will Sainz jr ever win for Ferrari?
Esploratore (@esploratore)
14th May 2020, 13:38
Why wouldn’t he ever win? When you consider those kind of drivers I don’t see why sainz wouldn’t be able to win races at ferrari, certainly they need to have decent performance considering mercedes’ strength, but I don’t think a few victories are out of question.
TFLB (@tflb)
14th May 2020, 13:40
@peartree He was equal with Max, thrashed Kvyat, and beat Norris… beaten by Hulk yes but everyone has an off-year. I get you don’t like him but how about hold off on your final judgement until he has at least proven to be a failure or otherwise at Ferrari? On almost every topic, even unrelated, you seem to find a way to criticise the guy, which is a little tiresome. He might turn out to be a race-winner – who knows? Unlike Ricciardo he hasn’t yet been given the chance, which is why I think he should not be written off before he’s even sat in a race-winning car.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
14th May 2020, 13:54
@tflb @esploratore I didn’t give a final judgement. I questioned.
No he was not equal to Max definitely not in qualifying as stats show and arguably even less competitive in race trim an area where he also lacked against Hulk.
Frankly I think Sainz is average, there are less competent drivers on the grid.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
14th May 2020, 13:59
@esploratore sorry that comment was not meant for you, just tflb. You make a valid point, it is just that there is an incredible streak that every (regular) ferrari driver ends up winning races, going back to the early 90’s.
TFLB (@tflb)
14th May 2020, 14:12
@peartree Obviously you’re not remembering correctly, as Sainz out-qualified Verstappen over the course of 2015, both in raw terms and when you take into account sessions where one or both had problems.
anon
14th May 2020, 15:33
@tflb the final reckoning is given as 9-7 to Sainz in 2015 on this site, but Sainz’s average qualifying position before penalties were applied is slightly worse than Verstappen (11.8 for Sainz and 11.0 for Verstappen) – so it’s not a particularly decisive point in Sainz’s favour.
Mark Russell
17th May 2020, 11:14
@peartree Average drivers don’t sign for Ferrari, I guess. You can like him or not, but an average driver doesn’t get a podium from the last row in the grid. Average drivers don’t take a team from penultimate to fourth. He’s not average and he’ll show again this year, even before he joins Ferrari. He’s stepped up to the top drivers’ confidence and quality standard.
alex
14th May 2020, 15:01
What Rookie? Norris? Look at the standings please!! His father is a legend and one of the best drivers that ever participate in rallies, so your opinion looks pretty awful.
Balue (@balue)
14th May 2020, 15:14
@peartree Good points. The way even this site had him above Leclerc last year is really a testament to his ‘light-shining’. I find it to be old-fashioned bragging and quite tasteless, but seems a lot of people get taken in by it.
Warheart (@warheart)
14th May 2020, 15:24
“Just as his father”. His father happens to be a two time WRC champion and chosen by fans and chosen by fans and journalists as the greatest WRC driver:
https://www.wrc.com/en/news/season-2020/wrc/carlos-sainz-crowned-the-greatest-driver/
I think everyone at Ferrari is hoping he’s just as his father.
erikje
14th May 2020, 19:09
Does Ferrari needs a rally style driver?
Joseph
14th May 2020, 22:17
try again when you have a point
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
15th May 2020, 10:13
@warheart Being a rally driver is not all about speed, when mcrae was sainz’s team-mate Colin was far quicker, even in his latter years Kankunnen at Ford was quicker, Auriol at toyota shone when given a seat. Sainz was intelligent.
Agreed @balue .There is no metric I can conjure up that makes sainz look as good as the impression people have of him. He has done nothing to be this loved.
Dom Kelly (@maranelli)
14th May 2020, 12:55
Great analysis by the author, I agree with him in that RB overlooked Sainz and that was a huge mistake. Poetical justice if he beats Verstappen (RB) to get te WDC in a Ferrari. Karma, it is all.
bosyber (@bosyber)
14th May 2020, 13:12
One might say that it’s a bit of a feature of Red Bull’s program @maranelli – they also were surprised to lose Ricciardo (also to Renault!) even though it was clear he wasn’t happy – they have their more favoured sons, and the others, who might well fall between the cracks, or just ‘escape’ through those cracks into a wider world.
Mayrton
14th May 2020, 13:27
Exactly. The title of the article should be How RedBulls overlooked junior driver became Ferrari’s nr2 driver, successor of Kimi, Felipe, Rubens,….
Dave
14th May 2020, 14:07
To be fair to RB, it’s not obvious they were wrong. They presumably didn’t think they’re going to challenge for championships until the rules reset, so their main priority was keeping Verstappen happy until then.
Sham (@sham)
14th May 2020, 13:00
I think it’s a mistake for Sainz, as he will be a number 2 at Ferrari, but I wish him well and hope he beats the Red Bulls.
Mayrton
14th May 2020, 13:28
Exactly. The title of the article should be How RedBulls overlooked junior driver became Ferrari’s nr2 driver, successor of Kimi, Felipe, Rubens,….
alex
14th May 2020, 15:08
Well Leclerc 5 years contract and lots of money in wage. Sainz jr. 2 years contract (may be conditional 1+1). So looks like its the second option, which really is, also Ricciardo would have been… But its the team with the biggest money and the biggest history… So change McLaren 1 podium in the last 5 years, to Ferrari multiple wins and podiums every race. So it’s easy choice. Even Verstappen want to go to Ferrari and he’s regreting signing with RedBull…
But yes he’s the second driver at the moment, and this season McLaren won’t help him anymore in the fight in this short season, so i expect a soso season for Sainz jr. Short and not with too much help from the team.
But it’s obvious that if they offer you this chance, you cannot reject it!! Like the Mercedes second driver everybody wanted to go to be second driver at Mercedes, all the grid except the Ferrari drivers called when Rosberg retired…
What do you prefer, be the top driver in a middle or low team or be the second driver (Massa was the second driver and he fought for the championship). on a top team.
Mark Russell (@heming49)
14th May 2020, 18:19
Sainz is not going to Ferrari just to be a number 2. Proved to be as fast as Verstappen, for instance. He is more reliable and makes fewer mistakes than Leclerc. He can perfectly beat Leclerc. The two-year contract conjecture is just nonsense, both Sainz and Ferrari want to keep their options open for the future. Doing that way with McLaren Sainz was now able to go to Ferrari, it makes perfect sense for his own interest.
erikje
14th May 2020, 19:12
True, Ferrari did not sign my contract.. we both wanted to keep our options open for the future.
Phil-F1-21
15th May 2020, 0:59
Does Carlos have you on the payroll? You seem to have a very glowing opinion of him. Not really born out by his past performance I don’t think.
Carlos is an OK driver. Average compared to the field. I think he’s at Ferrari because they think he will, in the right circumstances, be more willing to play second fiddle to Leclerc. Then also because he is almost certainly much cheaper to employ than Ricciardo. A multiple proven race winner.
Iain Appleyard
15th May 2020, 1:50
How is it a mistake to join Ferrari?
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
14th May 2020, 13:13
But what will Ferrari make of their decision in case Sainz is beaten this year? Norris already had him in qualifying in his rookie year, and with better luck, he could have been closer in the points, and in 2020, who knows. They both have contracts so they won’t need to deal with that pressure, but if Sainz doesn’t outperform Norris, that will surely be a worry for Ferrari. I grew to like Sainz in the last two years and he’s very decent, but I don’t feel he has the potential to be an outstanding driver. Even his relative experience in terms of seasons in F1 might be enough to put him in a good starting position against Leclerc, who will have two Ferrari years under his belt by then, so I’d be a bit surprised if he would have the chance not to be the number 2 driver.
I think it was Kvyat at that point.
alex
14th May 2020, 15:11
This short season doesn’t matter anymore. Sainz will be the second driver at McLaren this year, and McLaren will focus all in Norris. So nobody expects Sainz to demolish Norris like last year, they’ll closer.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
14th May 2020, 16:16
I doubt there would be such favoritism at McLaren.
anon
14th May 2020, 19:42
@hunocsi I think that a number of Sainz fans, such as alex, are putting that idea out there because it allows them to support their driver irrespective of what happens.
If Sainz does better than Norris, then they will claim it as proof of Sainz’s brilliance – however, should Norris then be much closer in performance to Sainz, or even outperforms Sainz, they will then simply claim that it must have been because McLaren was biased in Norris’s favour.
Hugh (@hugh11)
14th May 2020, 13:14
I think if Sainz had been beating Hulkenberg when Ricciardo signed for Renault, Red Bull probably would’ve gone for him instead of Gasly.
Patrick (@paeschli)
14th May 2020, 14:17
This.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
15th May 2020, 1:02
+1
Serkan (@serkank)
15th May 2020, 22:51
I agree that Renault car didn’t suit his driving style. That is probably not a good sign of how skills to adapt his driving style to the car’s behavior. However he was consistently fast in McLaren and Toro Rosso.
Serkan (@serkank)
15th May 2020, 22:52
typo: “how skills” -> “his skills”
djole (@djordjeps)
14th May 2020, 13:40
LOL next star xD
Leclerc is going to smash Sainz, the same way Alonso smashed Vandoorne
and with 2 inexperienced and young driver ferrari is going to be midfiled team
they should have signed Button or Kimi
Ambrogio Isgro
14th May 2020, 15:16
Sainz Is not a rookie as Vandoorne and Ferrari is not going to be the disaster that was that McLaren-Honda.
Button is a former driver and they already know what Kimi could and could not achieve.
Without possibility to get Hamilton or Verstappen and we a super fast drive as Leclerc, they got three reasonable options: Sainz, Ricciardo and Bottas. They went for the younger.
Fantomius (@liko41)
14th May 2020, 15:27
Funny how people give so huge of a credit to Leclerc.
Sure, he won two races and generally performed well, but hey: being a championship material driver is totally another thing.
He still has to prove to be THAT good.
I wouldn’t bet my home on the fact that Charles would “smash” Sainz.
djole (@djordjeps)
14th May 2020, 16:54
@liko41 Ferrari sabotaged Leclerc the same way they did Massa and Kimi, but he still managed to outscore Vettel
that speaks a lot
While Sinz lost to both Verstapen and Hulkenberg in equal conditions
Sainz will be like Perez or Kovalainen at Mclaren, one year and bye bye…
Mark Russell (@heming49)
14th May 2020, 18:21
Ridiculous hate. Get your facts together. Sainz was incredibly fast in 2019. He was as well when he murdered Kvyat or outqualified Verstappen. Sainz has done nothing that can make you imagine he will be only one year in Ferrari.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
14th May 2020, 22:12
As much as you think people are haters you seem to be the exact opposite and don’t do very fair comparisons against other drivers yourself. You never seem to point out any of Sainz’s weaknesses over his time in F1, of which he has had plenty, admittedly barely any last year though. But he was still matched by a rookie in qualifying which I think shows an area he is possibly a bit weak in.
You Sainz has done nothing to make us think he may just be there for one season. Well, he had 1 great season last year (was rated 3rd in the driver rankings on this site, then in the driver rankings here was rated 13th the year before (10 positions lower), 10th in 2017, 6th in 2016 and 12th in his first season. I personally think he struggles to put more then one solid season in a row together. In a top team, I’m not convinced he’ll perform that well, but we will see.
I’m thinking the gap on average will probably be similar to Bottas vs Hamilton.
Fantomius (@liko41)
14th May 2020, 19:03
@djordjeps
To be fair, reliability issues stroke hard on Vettel’s side of garage too, last year.
He lost an almost certain win in Russia and a very possible podium place in Austin.
Leclerc is a quick chap, but fighting for a championship win with Hamilton is a completely different issue.
And btw, Sainz lost the TR battles with Verstappen by a very slim margin and he was plagued by far more reliability troubles than Maxi Boy… They were evenly matched.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
14th May 2020, 22:17
I really would question people thinking Verstappen and Sainz looked matched, or even particularly close. I don’t think either had a great season, but Sainz was solid for a rookie and Verstappen probably had the best rookie season there has been for years, but still, Not exactly his cleanest year. But pace wise during the races, he looked far better than Sainz to me most of the time.
https://www.racefans.net/2015/12/16/2015-f1-driver-rankings-6-max-verstappen/
https://www.racefans.net/2015/12/11/2015-f1-driver-rankings-12-carlos-sainz-jnr/
dave
15th May 2020, 8:40
Are you Alonso’s publicist? He barely beat Stoffel, once the performance difference in the two cars is taken into account. They had to continually handicap vD’s car because he kept getting closer to Alonso than their contracts permitted.
Cesar Melendez
14th May 2020, 14:04
I hope he knows well he is going into a team that has a predefined nr 1 and nr 2 driver from the begginig of the season, I dont think Carlos will be as patient as Charles last year, giving position to Vettel and not getting equal treatment, Sainz’ temperament will come to the test with Ferrari, and my predictions is it will create explosive reactions that Binotto will not be able to manage.
Mark Russell (@heming49)
14th May 2020, 18:22
He looked patient to me when Verstappen disrespected him and the team and Sainz still obeyed team orders. That turned right for him if he ended in Ferrari, didn’t he?
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
14th May 2020, 14:15
Alternate take on Red Bull: whilst you could argue that both Ricciardo and Sainz are missed opportunities which an even better team might manage in a better way, surely these transfers are the ultimate confirmation that Red Bull’s system is bang on? Their alumni are going to Ferrari and lead a resurgent McLaren, whilst Red Bull will still feel comfortable knowing they have the sport’s biggest (future) star in Verstappen and have a stronger line-up than any team bar Mercedes. Sure, they could have had Verstappen-Sainz or Verstappen-Ricciardo, but at greater cost both literally and in terms of effort. You don’t have to like the team or the method to be impressed with how their drivers litter the top seats.
Patrick (@paeschli)
14th May 2020, 14:18
Vettel – Verstappen – Sainz – Ricciardo – JEV are all fantastic drivers. Kudos to RB for bringing such talents into the sport
Fantomius (@liko41)
14th May 2020, 15:33
Vettel, Verstappen, Ricciardo and probably Sainz would have arrived in F1 regardless.
JEV maybe not, but it would’t have been a mortal sin.
The point is RB programme had produced few outstanding drivers, compared to the amount of guys contracted. And many of them had their careers ruined.
erikje
14th May 2020, 19:15
Most of those would not even had a career without RBR.
Jose Lopes da Silva
14th May 2020, 23:20
If you won’t to look at careers ruined, look to De Vries and Marciello. And then look to Stroll and Latifi.
Don’t look to the main force bringing talent rather than money to F1.
AMG44 (@amg44)
14th May 2020, 14:58
Carols and Max were very evenly matched during their days at Torro Rosso. Max a tenth or two faster but Carlos a better Sunday driver making less mistakes. Leclerc will have a tough fight on his hand beating Carlos.
Mike
14th May 2020, 15:12
Not from Hungary 2015 onwards. That’s when Max started distancing himself from Carlos. Congrats to Carlos, will be an interesting battle to watch! I’m not convinced Charles will beat him so easily…
Mark Russell (@heming49)
14th May 2020, 18:23
Carlos outqualified Max 10-9 and Max won on Sundays 5-4 when neither DNFed. It looks quite tight to me.
Balue (@balue)
14th May 2020, 15:25
@amg44 He really won’t.
Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
14th May 2020, 15:08
The media constantly overhyping Sainz is real. So he’s beaten a rookie not by much, and beat a badly wounded Kvyat after getting dropped from RBR? Does everyone forget he got pretty thoroughly beaten by a guy who’s not even in F1 anymore?
alex
14th May 2020, 15:13
Not by much. Look at the standings, he demolished Norris last year…
Mark Russell (@heming49)
14th May 2020, 18:24
Not by much… just the double of the points. Norris was P11 in the standings and Sainz P6, in front of two RB drivers. And the rookie you are talking about is a F3 champion and F2 vice-champion. Do you watch F1?
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
15th May 2020, 10:10
There are a lot of people you have now questioned if they watch the sport. You yourself almost make it seem like you didn’t follow last season that well when you said Sainz had 5 mechanical DNFs. He had 3.
Australia, Belgium and Italy.
You also said responding to someone else that you didn’t think that Norris had had particularly bad luck, when he had in fact clearly had worse than Sainz. Norris had a mechanical DNF in Canada, Germany, Belgium and Mexico.
This does make up some of the difference for the points between them on race day. Yes, not everything, but certainly a good few. He was running 5th in Belgium until retiring on the last lap.
That is 4 mechanical retirements for Norris vs 3 for Sainz. Norris also retired later on in china due to damage from the contact with Kvyat. In Spain, he had contact with Stroll and also retired, though I think this was his own fault.
Sainz’s only other retirement wasn’t mechanical, it was in Bahrain when him and Verstappen had a battle that went wrong.
Before criticizing others for not watching F1, some of the things you say relating to Sainz could do with being a little more accurate.
Mark Russell (@heming49)
15th May 2020, 10:56
Hi again Ben, I am happy that I have provided you a new hobby, and that is to just be aware of my comments. That means I mean something to you I guess, to thank you first of all. Said that, you are right that Norris had bad luck as well, but that does not take that Sainz destroyed him in race pace and consistency. If you’d watch F1 you wouldn’t only trust the numbers and see this kind of other things, that’s why I ask that question.
Ruben
14th May 2020, 17:00
I really wonder how the young shoulders of Leclerc and Sainz are going to cope with carrying the weight of the team. Leclerc is a Tifosi-favourite, a fast, classy, Italian speaking, Italian Grand Prix winning young driver. Sainz has everything in him to be an excellent 2nd driver with similar qualities.
At the same: history shows that when Ferrari starts thinking with their heart and passion first things can get chaotic (I think part of the reason Vettel couldn’t really get the team/situation to work for him) and I wonder if two passionate young racers are able to manage with the politics.
Mioki (@okif1)
14th May 2020, 18:18
I think two Mediterranean drivers, both Italian Speaking, both in the 20’s, both with the same first name, have a better way to manage passion than a driver from Northern Europe with another from the South. The way a Mediterranean person manage others passion can be easily misunderstood by a German, British or Dutch one.
I have hope this time Ferrari had done the right choice. Having a WDC is not always the best choice. LEC was not contracted as a first driver with stupid 1st driver conditions in it. Same happened with SAI. Maybe Ferrari has learned that managing egos when there is not a contract backing the drivers is a lot easier.
Much have been said about bad seasons of SAI vs VER, or SAI vs HUL. Leaving DNF aside, VER was almost on par with SAI. Regarding his year in a Renault, he arrived to a team with a car designed for HUL’s style, unmanageable for SAI.
This is something that can happen. LEC had good landing at Ferrari regarding car tuning. It is yet to be seen how SAI arrives to the 2021 Ferrari.
Anyway, I look forward to see renewed drivers in the top teams. Only HAM and BOT are there from the previous generation.
F1oSaurus (@)
14th May 2020, 18:58
The fact that this didn’t happen says enough though really. That’s how not interested Red Bull were in Sainz.
To be honest I would guess that Sainz is going to be on top of Leclerc. Not so much because Sainz is such an outstanding driver, but I just don’t feel Leclerc has shown the consistency and the speed he should have for a Ferrari seat.
Dave
14th May 2020, 21:36
@f1osaurus
‘The fact that this didn’t happen says enough though really. That’s how not interested Red Bull were in Sainz.’
Yes, but is that because Sainz is much too good for what they want?
I think Red Bull would be mad not to put everything into Max Verstappen, but that means discarding other very, very talented drivers in favour of Gasly etc.
I agree with you that Sainz hasn’t signed to be second driver at Ferrari. Not sure Ferrari see it that way, but they might have their minds changed for them.
Jack King (@jacktheking95)
14th May 2020, 21:22
Some people on here clearly haven’t watched Sainz on the first lap of Monaco 2019 in a while, now that was a smooth operation
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
15th May 2020, 21:39
@jacktheking95
He gained one position. Though his move on Kvyat did look impressive. He admittedly made a good recovery from a less than average start which nearly lost his 9th position that he started in, but he got that place back, then got 1 more.
A gain of 1 position from a his starting grid on the first lap even at Monaco isn’t exactly that amazing though so maybe it isn’t that surprising that some don’t remember it? He was certainly not the only one to make lap one gains. 4 other drivers gained one position on lap one and Stroll and Kubica gained 2 in fact.
Jack King (@jacktheking95)
16th May 2020, 14:19
Was more how spectacular the moves were for me, I would argue his general pace has always been good but this is evidence of him having that opportunistic streak that great drivers have, for the record I don’t see him beating Leclerc just think it will be a lot closer than some people seem to be accounting for, of course we won’t know until we see it!
knightameer (@knightameer)
14th May 2020, 21:43
Redbull, it seems, doesn’t give a hoot about anyone other than their chosen Messiah ‘Verstappen’. So it’s likely they are not even sweating the loss of their ‘star’. The only reason they were worried about Gasly because he didn’t even finish 6th or 5th in most of the races and that cost them 2nd in WCC. For all what’s worth it, they maybe trying to clone an obedient 10% slower Max in Milton Keynes
Mark Thomson (@melthom)
14th May 2020, 21:51
“Star” is too much said. His job is to keep the interest high in Spain and bring home the Constructors Championship.
Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
14th May 2020, 22:38
First of all Sainz was best of the rest because McLaren was the best car outside the top three teams and he was facing Lando who was a rookie, carlos is overhyped. Also when Carlos was facing kyvat he was coming off an embarrassing demotion his heart wasn’t in f1 and had horrible luck. Scew ferrari they deserve the next few years of losing they will experience.
Mark Russell (@heming49)
15th May 2020, 11:01
That rookie you talk about is a F3 champion and F2 vice-champion. Norris was beaten by Ricciardo, Perez and many more in the standings, Sainz did an outstanding job to finish P6 in front of two Red Bulls. That is not what overhyped means. Trying to adapt to a non-working car in Renault is not embarrassing. It happened to Magnussen, Palmer, and kinda to Ricciardo as well. He had horrible luck when Toro Rosso had a great car in 2015 whereas Max didn’t, for instance.
macaque (@macaque)
15th May 2020, 8:51
A bit ironic that Sainz lost his seat to Daniel Ricciardo at Renault, and now Ricciardo misses the opportunity to get the Ferrari seat because of Carlos.
If I was calling the shots at Ferrari I would’ve chosen Daniel, but I really hope the best for Carlos as well.
Also hope that Daniel gets a shot at the championship before the end of his career. Mercedes?
Has Daniel fallen into the Alonso trap of unfortunate team choices?
JMDan (@danmar)
17th May 2020, 19:41
I’d like to see Daniel on the podium more often. If he never wins a championship he should at least have the opportunity to retire in style.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
15th May 2020, 13:43
Is Sainz the biggest winner or the biggest loser to go to Ferrari?
Time will tell – one thing is for sure, the deck is stacked against him massively.
Jose Lopes da Silva
16th May 2020, 18:09
The coolest thing about the British F1 media and fans is the famous “italian Mediterranean culture” that makes Ferrari to be passionate and politicking and failing in the process. The years go on and we keep up with this. Says a lot about a couple of British prejudices.
McLaren does not win a championship since 2008 and failed miserably to give Raikkonen the titles he deserved in the early 2000’s. Eventually, after going to the very back of the field, we stopped hearing it was a front-runner team – but we still had to “swallow” the story that it was Honda’s fault.
Leclerc and Sainz will be perfectly capable of doing the job if they have a good car. And I’m not sure Ferrari is willing to go for any special treatments. Their latest move was to bring a driver to challenge their number 1 driver, and it worked. I don’t think there’s mood to treat Leclerc as the new Schumacher.
Moreover, Ferrari oldest tradition is to have the car winning rather than the drivers. This was cut off by bringing Schumacher to end the post-79 drought. But for the moment the three Top Drivers brought after Schumacher did not work quite as expected. Ferrari only hired, as far as I know, 5 drivers which were already champions: Andretti (for 2 races…), Prost, Schumacher, Alonso and Vettel.