Official: @CarlosSainz55 will drive for @ScuderiaFerrari on a two-year deal. #F1

Scuderia Ferrari have announced that Carlos Sainz will drive for the team in the 2021 and 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship seasons after it was confirmed that Sebastian Vettel would be leaving the team.

Sainz will be Charles Leclerc’s team-mate from 2021 onwards as the Spaniard joins the Maranello-outfit after spending two-seasons at McLaren, creating the youngest driver pairing in the Scuderia’s recent history.

The news follows the earlier announcement of Daniel Ricciardo leaving Renault to replace Sainz at McLaren for 2021.

“I am very happy that I will be driving for Scuderia Ferrari in 2021 and I’m excited about my future with the team,” explained Sainz. “I still have an important year ahead with McLaren Racing and I’m really looking forward to going racing again with them this season.” Sainz concluded. Credit to Ferrari for the quote. https://www.ferrari.com/en-AU/formula1/articles/carlos-sainz-scuderia-ferrari-season-2021-2022

Next season will mark the first time since 2007 that Ferrari will not have a current or previous world champion amongst their line-up – unless Leclerc clinches his maiden 2020 title should the season go ahead.

However Team Principal Mattia Binotto praised the Spaniard’s talent and experience.

“I’m pleased to announce that Carlos will join Scuderia Ferrari as from the 2021 championship,” explained Binotto. “With five seasons already behind him, Carlos has proved to be very talented and has shown that he has the technical ability and the right attributes to make him an ideal fit with our family.”

 

“We’ve embarked on a new cycle with the aim of getting back to the top in Formula 1. It will be a long journey, not without its difficulties, especially given the current financial and regulatory situation, which is undergoing a sudden change and will require this challenge to be tackled in a different way to the recent past.”

 

We believe that a driver pairing with the talent and personality of Charles and Carlos, the youngest in the past fifty years of the Scuderia, will be the best possible combination to help us reach the goals we have set ourselves”. Binotto concluded. Credit to Ferrari for the quote. https://www.ferrari.com/en-AU/formula1/articles/carlos-sainz-scuderia-ferrari-season-2021-2022

Sainz’s signing comes following a strong 2019 campaign for the Spaniard finishing sixth in the World Driver’s Championship (his career-best) – the highest of any driver outside the big-three World Champions Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.

Sainz also scored his first-career podium at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix to give McLaren their first piece of silverware since the 2014 season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Interestingly, Sainz’s move to Ferrari similarly follows the career path of childhood hero Fernando Alonso with both starting at the same team (Minardi in the latter’s case, which transformed into the Scuderia Toro Rosso squad that Sainz debuted for in 2014) before joining Renault, McLaren (Alonso went back to Renault for a two-year deal in 2008-09) and then Ferrari.