Carlos Sainz shares ’emotional’ message in his final season at Ferrari after securing P3 at Austrian GP

In the early phase of this year, it was announced that Ferrari and Carlos Sainz will part ways after the conclusion of the 2024 season.

Carlos Sainz shares ’emotional’ message in his final season at Ferrari after securing P3 at Austrian GP

Carlos Sainz (via IMAGO)

Carlos Sainz is a revered driver in the Formula 1 paddock. The Spaniard has been one of the few drivers to have won a race in the past two years. However, despite his form, the 29-year-old was sacked in favor of Lewis Hamilton by Ferrari and is completing his last season as the Italian outfit’s racing driver. With nearing the end of his tenure with the team, he shared an emotional message after securing his fifth podium of the 2024 season in Austria.

Ferrari signed Carlos Sainz for the 2021 season to replace Sebastian Vettel. The Spaniard had huge boots to fill, but he was able to quickly able to get comfortable with the team, and thus in his very first season with Ferrari, emerged as the better driver. However, Charles Leclerc was always poised to be Ferrari’s golden boy. On the other hand, with Lewis Hamilton showing interest in joining Maranello, the unfortunate 29-year-old was sacked in favor of the Brit.

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Since then, Sainz has given his utmost best in races and after a podium in Austria, shared a heartfelt message.

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Being a Ferrari driver in Formula 1 makes me emotional. I was thinking about it while spraying the champagne because maybe next year it won’t be like this.
Carlos Sainz said post-race in Austria

The 29-year-old admitted that being a Ferrari F1 driver is a dream come true for him. However, with this venture coming to an end soon, he was celebrating his entire time there and was thinking about the same while spraying the champagne on the podium, as next year wouldn’t be the same for him.

Carlos Sainz admits it will be a tough fight with Mercedes in the upcoming races

The Maranello-based team began the season with the second-fastest car. However, as the campaign has progressed, McLaren and Mercedes have leapfrogged them. Acknowledging the slump in performance, Sainz claimed that it would be a tough fight with Mercedes.

Mercedes' Lewis hamilton and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz
Lewis hamilton and Carlos Sainz

The former three-time race winner explained how the past few weekends have been ones to forget for Ferrari.

In the last two weekends they’ve been – or at least the faster Merc – has been a little bit quicker than the faster Ferrari [in] both cases, so we just need to make a step going into Silverstone if we want to fight up there. The reality is that, at this stage of the season, we are just trailing the Merc and a step behind McLaren and Red Bull. We’ve had some issues in the car the last couple of races, which we are looking forward to resolving soon.
Carlos Sainz said in the post-race interview with F1

Sainz elaborated that the German marque has been on the rise for the past few weekends. Moreover, he expects them to be in a tough fight around Silverstone with Mercedes and hopes to have the upper hand on them before entering the summer break.

Despite Sainz’s expectations, Mercedes has emerged as a front-running car as George Russell won the race in Austria. Thus, the engineers in Maranello would have to make rapid progress to catch up to Red Bull and challenge for wins, like their prior form.

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