Carlos Sainz seeking long-term "stability" with Ferrari

Ferrari

Sainz seeking long-term "stability" with Ferrari

Sainz left McLaren to join Ferrari over the winter

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Thursday 18 February 2021 14:00

Carlos Sainz has revealed his desire of forming a long-term relationship with Ferrari after a period which has seen him bounce around Formula 1 teams.

Prior to the start of last season, Sainz signed a two-year contract as the replacement for Sebastian Vettel after the Scuderia opted not to renew the four-time champion's deal.

Sainz will now partner Charles Leclerc this year as Ferrari aims to bounce back from its worst season since 1980 and again challenge Mercedes and Red Bull for race wins.

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Ferrari is now Sainz's fourth team in F1 in just his seventh season in the sport. Asked if there was a reason he was so well travelled, he was quick to point out his three-year stint at Toro Rosso.

"I think, honestly, the only time in Formula One where my career has been moving up and down from one team to another was the time when I left Toro Rosso to go to Renault and then to McLaren," said Sainz, in an interview conducted late last year that included GPFans Global.

"But if you remember Toro Rosso I was there for three years. In 2017 I felt at home in Toro Rosso and was performing on a good level.

"But then the Renault opportunity came and I was still contracted by Red Bull, so it was a very strange situation there and finally, I was released to McLaren and I thought I was going to build a long-term relationship with McLaren.

"I enjoyed the two years with the team a lot. The second year we saw improvements compared to the first.

"It shows that stability in one team and staying in one team for a long time helps with performance and makes you a quicker driver and a better driver."

After signing a two-year contract with Ferrari, Sainz is now hoping his new employer will be his home for the foreseeable future in order to avoid his experience at Renault.

"[Stability] is also my target with Ferrari and why I signed a two-year deal with them," he explained.

"As long as we are happy with each other, I want that to be the new tendency in my contracts, not just one year like I was with Renault not knowing what was going to happen.

"If there is one thing I’ve learned in McLaren, it is how important it is to be more than one year in a team to extract the maximum potential of that car and the people that are next to you."