Carlos Sainz Jr Opens Up on the First Time Ferrari Approached Him

Last week Sebastian Vettel and Scuderia Ferrari nearly sent the Formula 1 driver market into a state of frenzy. The driver and the team will part ways at the end of the 2020 season and in 48 hours the Maranello squad drafted Carlos Sainz.

However, Sainz will honour his McLaren contract before stepping into the scarlet machine. He recently spoke to F1 journalist Will Buxton about his time as a McLaren driver, and the story behind his Ferrari move.

As it turned out, Ferrari got in touch with the Spaniard over the winter in an attempt to woo him over to Maranello. Surprisingly, McLaren bosses Zak Brown and Andreas Seidl did not act as obstacles and even helped smooth the process.

“The moment I felt like there was an interest from Ferrari in hiring me for 2021, I went straight to Zak,” Sainz said. “And his feedback was, ‘Okay, we’ll let you talk to Ferrari, stay in touch to see how everything develops.’”

“The key to this process has been the clarity and the openness of all parties involved to make it happen. That makes me incredibly proud and the way it has all been managed. Makes me feel very happy and very thankful to Zak and his team.”

No hard feelings between Carlos Sainz and McLaren

When Sainz’s departure became imminent, Zak Brown and Andreas Seidl whole-heartedly congratulated him. According to Sainz, they insisted that he deserved it and were confident that he would be successful there. He confessed that he was happy to hear such a positive response from his bosses.

“They are going to find an extremely hard working guy, that will go to Italy. He will spend a lot of time in Maranello, the same way I did at McLaren,” Coulthard concluded. “And I will try to build something special with Ferrari, the way I tried to build something special in McLaren.”