Carlos Sainz’s exemplary adaptation to Ferrari

When Carlos Sainz was announced as Sebastian Vettel’s replacement at Ferrari a few days after the largest global pandemic in a century turned everyone on their backs, there were many suspicions. A four-time world champion was traded in low hours for a good driver, with the ability to lead a rebuilding McLaren but without a victory under his belt. A promising Charles Leclerc squire was recruited, or so it seemed, to help the Monegasque pull up.

A year and a half later, neither squire, nor squire. Carlos Sainz is the leader of the Ferrari team, both in points (after Turkey they are virtually tied, since he only gets that half point obtained in the sordid Belgian GP), and in number of podiums: he has three to one of his teammate . Respect has already been earned among the tifosi, something that is not trivial given the passion with which they understand being a Ferrari fan, but also that of Leclerc, that of the engineers and that of their rivals. From being a promising squire to being a first sword.

Carlos Sainz’s work philosophy, learned both at home and abroad, prevents him from getting comfortable. Right now he could relax: it is his best season in points (he has 10.5 more than in all of 2020), he has been on the podium three times, he has even touched victory … But far from that, Sainz bows his head in each Grand Prize, he puts on his helmet and at the orders of what they send him. Unlike many others, the Spaniard has well understood the aphorism of ‘You run for Ferrari, you win for Ferrari’.

The last example he left at the Turkish GP. The FIA ​​regulations are so out of step with the intentions of Formula 1 (which is sometimes the same) that it forces teams to think about when they are going to be penalized. It is as if a football coach decides when a forward is going to be sent off. Not all riders understand it well, especially those who have gotten used to the top of the table because they will find themselves struggling with the Mazepin, Tsunoda, Latifi or Giovinazzi. Sainz is not among them. After his teammate Leclerc was his turn in Russia, he was aware that his turn was going to happen to him in Turkey and he accepted it with sportsmanship and full normality. Even with pleasure: proof of this is the smile with which he came out to the press corral area after qualifying on Saturday, in which he helped Charles Leclerc to make his good lap by giving him a slipstream in Q2 so that he did not suffer to pass the cut.

A silent leader

Being the leader of Ferrari is a brown, said in Roman Paladino. Anyone who knows a little about the history of the Scuderia knows that there have been more years in which they have been out of the fight for the World Cup than in, and that there were more times in which they were defeated than victorious. Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher had strong and distinctly personal characters, which in turn pulled the team’s bandwagon.

Sainz, on the other hand, prefers that it is his job that speaks for him and when things don’t go well, little hairs go to sea. The circumstances of the Turkish GP, with a wet track that did not dry out despite the fact that it did not rain (it looked more like Santiago de Compostela than Istanbul, a Spanish engineer joked), made the pit stops a critical moment in the race. That of Carlos Sainz failed due to a communication problem: the warning system that the change of wheels had finished did not work and it took five seconds longer than expected to release Sainz. Although he finished eighth, in his own words, he could have been fifth or sixth. He did not complain, far from it, and there are reasons. Ferrari is not the team that has the most optimized pit stops, and it is something you see in every race. Rare is the Grand Prix in which something does not fail, thus weighing down clear options of good results for its two drivers. The easy thing is to drop a pearl in the press … but Sainz (and Leclerc either) does not. Another song is in the talks and meetings with the engineers, where the cards are put on the table.

There are six races left of the 2021 season and after this year’s good results, now that he will have a fresh engine, there is optimism around Sainz’s options. The fight for the title between Hamilton and Verstappen (who have also gone through the drink of penalties) predicts trouble at the top, and there are circuits that allow ‘salseo’. Sainz will be there, or at least he will try.