Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has been warned that he may have jumped the gun by ditching Carlos Sainz in favour of Lewis Hamilton. The Brit will partner Charles Leclerc from next season onwards, leaving Sainz without a drive for 2025 despite being one of the best performers on the grid this year.
Sainz has finished on the podium in every race he has competed in this season, claiming third place in Bahrain before winning the Australian Grand Prix. His victory came just two weeks after he was forced to sit out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where he was replaced by Oliver Bearman after undergoing surgery to remove his appendix.
Hamilton, meanwhile, is enduring his worst start to a season in recent memory having finished no higher than seventh after the opening three races. Former F1 driver Christian Danner has warned that Sainz’s impressive form is ‘messing everything up’ at Ferrari, who he believes might live to regret their decision to replace him with Hamilton.
“If you want Hamilton, you’ve kept the wrong one because he [Sainz] is faster, but that’s highly political,” Danner told MotorsportMagazin. “He [Vasseur] should have waited a little longer. It wasn’t a necessity. I wouldn’t blame Lewis for stumbling at the moment, but one thing is clear.
“Sainz in this kind of form, when he has Leclerc under control like this, you can say that he [Vasseur] perhaps made his decision too early. Sainz is approaching it with a commitment, a joy and an aggressiveness. I really like that. It also requires a fervent attitude: ‘Now it’s me and no one else’.
“You can see it not only in his eyes, but in every corner and at the moment, Carlos Sainz is messing everything up at Ferrari. First of all, you’ve signed the wrong driver for next year. Hamilton is behind, he’s [Sainz] much better.”
Sainz is likely to attract plenty of interest from other teams ahead of next season thanks to his impressive start to the current campaign. He has already been linked with a move to Stake, who will become the Audi works team in 2026, but it has also been speculated that he could join Red Bull if Sergio Perez is relieved of his duties.
Christian Horner refused to rule out the possibility of moving for Sainz after his impressive victory in Australia, saying: “We want to field the best pairing we can with Red Bull Racing so sometimes you have got to look outside the pool as well.
“The market is reasonably fluid in certain parts. I mean, based on a performance like that, you couldn’t rule any possibility out so I think we just want to take the time.”
