Carlos Sainz may not receive the opportunity to win another Formula 1 race for a while ahead of a move to Williams in 2025.
The four-time race-winner departs a title-contending Ferrari outfit just as they arrive at their peak, following a season where they missed out on clinching the Constructors’ Championship by just 14 points.
Sainz won two races during his swansong year, including a heroic Australian Grand Prix effort where he battled back from appendicitis surgery to take the first non-Red Bull win of 2024.
It had already been confirmed that seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton would replace him by then, and he took his time to make a decision on his future before picking Williams.
Lando Norris believes Sainz will make Williams a top team but that project is going to take some time considering that it’s geared toward long-term success.
Team boss James Vowles wants them to be ready to compete from 2026, making next season more of a learning process for the Spaniard.
How the ‘extra pressure’ that Carlos Sainz placed on himself in Mexico City worked
Sainz believes he’s stronger than Hamilton at this stage in their careers, despite being pushed out of Ferrari by the Brit.
With 2024 being what is expected to be his last season in a front-running car for a while, he wanted to take advantage of every opportunity to win that he could.
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After failing to win the United States Grand Prix, he felt his window may have shut before another opening came at the Mexico City Grand Prix. Knowing it might be his last chance, he put extra pressure on himself and it paid off handsomely with one last victory in red.
“I felt maybe Austin was my last chance to win a race, you know? But then I thought about it and said, maybe Mexico,” he said.
“The car can be strong and I can get another chance at it, another go at it. So I put a bit of extra pressure on myself, which honestly I felt quite a lot during Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“That maybe helped me keep that extra percentage of me and helped me to secure that win that was one of the most for sure, beautiful ones.”
Could Carlos Sainz return to Ferrari to replace Lewis Hamilton in 2027?
With a two-year contract under his belt, there’s no guarantee that Hamilton will be on the grid beyond 2026.
If he shows signs of regression or fails to discover his form of old, he could find himself facing retirement without achieving a record eighth Drivers’ Championship.
Finding a replacement for him may be easy if Oliver Bearman performs well in his first few seasons with Haas, but he may need a little more time to mature before he’s ready for the top seat.
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That would make Sainz the easy option for the Italian outfit to pursue as a man who knows how the team operates and how the car works.
Certainly, if Williams cannot make any impression on the midfield next season, then the 30-year-old Spaniard may be looking elsewhere in the future.
