Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has spoken of his future with the Scuderia, as he has just one year left on his contract with the Maranello-based team.
Sainz scored four podiums on his way to a fifth-placed championship finish, out-scoring highly rated team-mate Charles Leclerc in his debut Ferrari season. The pair guided the Scuderia to P3 in the Constructors’ Standings.
As a legacy of his good performances, team principal Mattia Binotto has suggested that he will be working over the winter to negotiate a new contract with the 27-year-old, whose current deal expires at the end of 2022.
Sainz does not feel desperate to put pen to paper immediately, but he is extremely happy at Ferrari.
Speaking during the post-season, the Spaniard said he can’t envisage himself driving for a team other than Ferrari, even in the long term.
“Considering that I have another year left on my contract, I’m not in a hurry. But it’s true that right now I don’t see myself anywhere else but Ferrari in the medium or long term,” Sainz said.
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The Spaniard feels immense pleasure knowing that he drives for the most historic team in Formula 1 history.
“I am happy here, I enjoy it a lot and I go home after every race with a smile on my face and a sense of pride for being a Ferrari driver.
“And if you add good results to that, I don’t think I’ll be better off than at Ferrari anywhere. I am happy to be here.”
Ferrari signed Sainz from McLaren as Sebastian Vettel’s replacement, and the Spaniard reckons that high expectations of himself were the key to maximising his results in his debut year in red.
“I had quite high expectations, because I like to set the bar as high as possible to try my best to meet it. With a high target, you push yourself more during the season,” he added.
While Sainz does not know if all of his personal expectations have been met, he believes that he has developed well.
“I can’t say if I’ve met them all [my expectations] or not, but I knew it would be a season of adaptation.
“[It was] hard, especially at the beginning, and the most important thing was to finish the year stronger than I started it, with a good progression. And I have more than achieved that.”
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Sainz will again partner Leclerc in 2022, with the Monegasque under contract until 2024.
The Scuderia are yet to win a race since Sebastian Vettel’s Singapore Grand Prix victory in 2019, while you have to go all the way back to 2008 to find their last title success.
This came in the form of a constructors’ title as Felipe Massa missed out on the Drivers’ Championship to Sir Lewis Hamilton, who claimed the first of his seven in the season-ending Brazil GP.
Kimi Raikkonen remains the team’s last Drivers’ Champion, having triumphed in 2007, beating Hamilton and his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso by a single point.
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