Formula 1 Mexican GP
Sainz: Leaving in 2025 is making improved Ferrari F1 form "bittersweet"
Sainz's strong performances with a resurgent Ferrari have left him somewhat melancholic ahead of his impending departure from the Formula 1 team
Filip Cleeren
Edited: Oct 27, 2024, 12:49 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24 detail
Photo by: Ferrari
Carlos Sainz says Ferrari's upturn in form is "bittersweet" for him, because he feels the squad is gearing up to be firmly in the world title hunt next year when he's no longer there.
Ferrari has overcome a car development setback in the middle part of the 2024 season to regain competitiveness in recent races, especially on circuits with relatively few high-speed corners.
Charles Leclerc won Monza's Italian Grand Prix in September and was fighting for victory in Baku, while a botched qualifying session prevented both he and Sainz from competing up front in Singapore. But the pair struck back by taking a 1-2 victory last week in Austin, led by Leclerc, which is bringing Ferrari back in championship contention.
Ferrari's resurgence is the culmination of a long process, with the team unable to sustain its development rate after a strong start to the 2022 season. In 2023 Fred Vasseur came in as a team boss to drive the squad forward in every department as he aimed to improve its culture and weed out operational mistakes, which is paying dividends this year with much improve race pace.
Sainz has been there for most of the build-up, joining Maranello from McLaren for 2021, but he will be departing for Williams next year after Vasseur snapped up Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes at the start of the year.
So, while the Spaniard was buoyed by Ferrari's upturn in performance as he took his sixth pole of his career with the team, he admitted his Mexico pole was tinged with sadness as he won't be able to complete his journey with the resurgent Scuderia in 2025.
Pole man Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, in the post Qualifying Press Conference
Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images
"It's very sweet, given how good the car is, how well I'm driving recently, obviously optimistic going into the last five races," he said after beating 2024's title protagonists Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, as well as Leclerc, in qualifying.
"At the same time, it's bittersweet because it gives me a feeling Ferrari might be in the fight for the world championship next year and I will not be there to use it.
"I feel like I've been quite a big part of this team during the last four years trying to prepare the team to fight for that championship next year. And the fact that I'm driving well, being fast with the car and I'm leaving in five races is definitely leaves me a bit… I don't know how to say it, but not with a very good feeling.
"But it is what it is. I'm going to try and win more races, stand on the podium for as long as I can during these five races and enjoy that. And then we will think about next year."
Ferrari may yet win the constructors' title this year, bringing the gap with McLaren down to 48 points, and following just eight points behind Red Bull.
Sainz felt Ferrari's high-speed cornering weakness compared to McLaren, which is still the dominant car in fast corners, will come to bite Ferrari in Qatar, but he expects other circuits to be stronger for the Scuderia.
"We are still lacking in high speed corners, especially in qualifying mode, which makes me feel like Qatar will still be a difficult race for us," the 30-year-old explained.
"But at all the other circuits hopefully we'll be in the mix, which means you give yourself a chance at winning at almost every track except for Qatar that I think is not a Ferrari track at all."
Read Also:
Formula 1Leclerc explains issues with low-grip F1 tracks after Mexico struggles
Formula 1Stella critical of McLaren's Mexico GP qualifying execution as Norris hits "limit"
Formula 1Lawson: RB making Mexico GP Q3 was on before Tsunoda crash
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Lawson: RB making Mexico GP Q3 was on before Tsunoda crash
Next article Russell happy for 2024 sacrifices after "unnecessary" crashes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Filip Cleeren
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
The impressive stats underpinning Liam Lawson's career-saving F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 d
The impressive stats underpinning Liam Lawson's career-saving F1 season
More from
Carlos Sainz
What the Brazilian GP revealed about F1's ability to cope with rain
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
2 d
What the Brazilian GP revealed about F1's ability to cope with rain
Williams has better cooling vests than anyone – Alex Albon
Formula 1
Formula 1 25 d
Williams has better cooling vests than anyone – Alex Albon
More from
Ferrari
Max Verstappen on Ferrari clashes: "I would never sign two number-one drivers"
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 d
Max Verstappen on Ferrari clashes: "I would never sign two number-one drivers"
F1 2026 calendar update: Imola GP off the table, no plan B if war escalates
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
2 d
F1 2026 calendar update: Imola GP off the table, no plan B if war escalates
Latest news
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
38 min
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
3 h
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe