‘McLaren Looks After You’- Hakkinen Warns Carlos Sainz of ‘Isolation’ at Ferrari

After a successful 2 year stint with McLaren, Carlos Sainz joined Ferrari for the 2021 season. The Spaniard had to leave a family at the Woking-outfit to come and join a new family at Maranello. However, the pressure of being a part of the latter is a lot more!

The Spaniard topped the charts in Qualifying 2 yesterday as he beat his teammate by the smallest of margins possible. However, Mika Hakkinen believes that the transition from Ferrari to McLaren will not be easy for Carlos.

He said, “This will be an interesting journey for Sainz, to move from McLaren to Ferrari. McLaren looks after you, you can talk to everyone. You can talk to the management at any time. They look after you, you can ask anything you want.

“But at Ferrari, the situation is surely different. You can no longer talk to anyone and ask questions, everything is more complicated. I still see him as young, you can very easily start feeling lost.”

Mika Hakkinen warns that Carlos Sainz could get lost at Ferrari

Mika Hakkinen drove for McLaren for 9 years of his Formula 1 career. His F1 career lasted for around 11 years and has immense knowledge about the sport. Having explained that Ferrari’s environment will differ from McLaren, he warns Sainz to not get lost.

“If something won’t work the panic hits. Who do you talk to then? To the team principal, your engineer, your dad? Who do you talk to when things don’t work? Or will you talk to the press about the problems?

“What I’m trying to say is that earlier at McLaren, Zak Brown, the management, and everyone were so close. You can talk to anyone and find solutions. I don’t know if the same harmony is to be found. You can easily get lost,” warned the Finnish driver.

Carlos is starting the race today at P8 position on soft tyres. That means that there could be some early overtaking chances for the Spaniard.

However, Ferrari will need a spot-on strategy to help Carlos have a successful first race for Ferrari. Where do you think he will finish the race today?