Carlos Sainz Reveals Grace Regardless of Dropping Ferrari Seat to Lewis Hamilton
Carlos Sainz has displayed exceptional professionalism and composure after being changed by Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. From the start, Sainz acknowledged the unparalleled attraction of the seven-time world champion and accepted Ferrari’s choice with out public grievance.
Nonetheless, it will be pure for Carlos Sainz to really feel some frustration when observing Hamilton’s early performances in 2025. Up to now, Lewis Hamilton has seemed to be a downgrade in comparison with the Spaniard. Whereas it stays potential that Hamilton will ultimately adapt and ship performances that surpass Carlos Sainz’s earlier stage, the preliminary indicators have been removed from encouraging for the Maranello group.
Except a powerful exhibiting on Friday and Saturday on the Shanghai Worldwide Circuit, Lewis Hamilton has persistently been outperformed by Charles Leclerc in each aggressive session this season. Typically, the gaps between the 2 Ferrari drivers have been important slightly than marginal.
Hamilton, who lately turned 40, has gathered simply 31 factors over the primary 5 race weekends. By comparability, the Spaniard surpassed that complete within the opening 5 rounds in every of his 4 seasons with the Scuderia.
In the meantime, Carlos Sainz, now at Williams, initially confronted challenges adjusting to his new group. Nonetheless, he has rapidly discovered his rhythm, qualifying eighth in Bahrain earlier than bettering to a sixth-place begin in Jeddah, the place he additionally secured a worthwhile four-point haul.
Hamilton vs. Sainz: Early Qualifying Comparisons Paint a Stark Image
Following a relentless opening stretch of 5 races in six weeks, Components 1 has entered a quick hiatus, offering a chance to judge Lewis Hamilton’s performances in opposition to Sainz’s earlier benchmarks. With an affordable pattern measurement, the comparability is more and more telling.
In the course of the 2023 Components 1 season, Charles Leclerc outqualified his former Maranello teammate 14 occasions throughout 23 weekends, however the common hole between them was an extremely slim 0.03%. This underscored that whereas Leclerc usually had the sting over a single lap, Sainz was extraordinarily shut and recurrently capable of problem his teammate.
Quick-forward to 2025, and the situation appears very completely different. The Monegasque driver already holds a 4-1 benefit over Hamilton in qualifying classes, with the typical hole now ballooning to 0.321% in response to F1 Tempo knowledge — greater than ten occasions bigger than the earlier 12 months’s distinction between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
This intra-team disparity ranks because the fourth-largest amongst all full-time driver pairings on the grid. Solely Jack Doohan (0.51%), Kimi Antonelli (0.471%), and Esteban Ocon (0.413%) path their teammates by higher margins — and notably, two of these three drivers are rookies.
Hamilton, by his personal admission, acknowledges that qualifying has grow to be a vulnerability at this stage of his profession. Nonetheless, even he might not have anticipated the gulf between himself and Charles Leclerc can be so dramatic in such a brief area of time.
Carlos Sainz Attracts Curiosity However Faces Profession Warnings
Whereas Sainz continues to rebuild his repute at Williams, murmurs about his future vacation spot have grown louder. Some Purple Bull insiders reportedly advocated for signing Sainz final 12 months, and with the present turbulence at Milton Keynes, they might now remorse lacking that chance.
The Spaniard has additionally begun to achieve the higher hand over teammate Alex Albon at Williams, narrowing the qualifying head-to-head to 3-2 and ending forward in Saudi Arabia for the primary time. Impressively, Sainz has additionally outqualified Hamilton up to now two Grand Prix weekends, a truth not misplaced on Components 1 followers.
Though Williams has shifted its focus totally to the 2026 rules, successfully halting improvement on this 12 months’s automobile, Carlos Sainz’s constant performances might nonetheless see him push for a top-10 end within the drivers’ standings by season’s finish.
Nonetheless, Juan Pablo Montoya has publicly urged Carlos Sainz to think twice about any potential provide from Purple Bull. With uncertainty surrounding each Max Verstappen’s and Yuki Tsunoda’s futures past 2025, a seat might open — however Montoya characterised the Purple Bull alternative as “poison ivy,” suggesting it might do extra hurt than good to Carlos Sainz’s profession trajectory.
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