When Ferrari announced Lewis Hamilton as its driver for 2025, Carlos Sainz was forced to find a seat elsewhere. He settled with Williams after months of consideration but admitted that he was taken aback by Ferrari’s decision to part ways with him.
Sainz was negotiating with the Maranello-based outfit when the news of Hamilton’s impending arrival was revealed. During a conversation on Sky Sports at the Dutch GP, Sainz said,
“I was in the middle of negotiations with Ferrari. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction. And suddenly, this news arrived and was completely unexpected.”
While talking to Ferrari about his future, Sainz had no idea that his career would be forced to take a drastic turn all of a sudden. He was driving at a top team, that was making progress, and he wanted to be a part of that. Sainz added,
“Having to deal with the decision, with negotiating, with talking to all these teams that I could potentially go for. It took energy out of my head and it was difficult to focus at times.”
“I was in the middle of negotiations with Ferrari.”
“Everything seemed to be going in the right direction and suddenly this news arrived and was completely unexpected.”
Carlos ☹️pic.twitter.com/S25H670YIN
— ari (@itsnotme_ari) August 26, 2024
Performance-wise, things were going as expected for Sainz. He had been a crucial asset to Ferrari since joining in 2021, winning three races and helping steady the ship during what was a turbulent time for the Italian team.
Sainz was then tasked with finding a new home. Initially, many – including top outfits like Mercedes and Red Bull – were reported to be interested in signing him. But they went after other suitors. The Madrid-born driver was left to choose between Alpine, Sauber/Audi, and Williams, and he went ahead with the last option.
Why Sainz chose Williams
Williams’ boss James Vowles had been openly pursuing Sainz’s signature ever since rumors of his departure first emerged. The British Team Principal worked hard to convince the 29-year-old, who eventually began to trust the project.
Sainz revealed that he felt positive about the Grove-based team’s present and optimistic about its future. He also recalled his time at McLaren. Although the Woking-based team wasn’t competing for race wins during his tenure (2019-2020), Sainz insisted that he was confident they would fight at the front soon. Sports Illustrated quoted Sainz as saying,
“I had this feeling at that time and now I have this feeling about the people and the culture in Williams, I need to trust that feeling, and this is what I committed to.”
Whether his gut feeling was right or not will become clearer in the next two years. If he feels it wasn’t, he may look for a change, which is why he signed a deal until 2026, when the picture will be clearer.
