Claiming that Carlos Sainz is “ready to sign” an extension with Ferrari, reports in Italy claim that the Scuderia’s “Leclerc-centric” technique may be to blame for the delay.
As both drivers set the final year of their contracts in 2024, team boss Fred Vasseur said last year that while contract negotiations were on his to-do list, he was prioritising Ferrari’s effects on the track.
This meant that the 2023 season, a crusade in which Ferrari finished third in the constructors’ championship, went through any news about a new deal for either driver.
Just weeks before the start of the 2024 season, Ferrari is reported to have announced that it has terminated Leclerc’s position at the team and that the driver has signed a deal for “beyond 2024”.
Nothing is known about teammate Sainz, and the length of his stay is the sticking point.
But according to Corriere dello Sport, the negotiations are more “complicated” than that.
The Italian publication claims that in a global Ferrari “focused on Leclerc”, Sainz’s ambition to earn a global name has a “bottleneck”.
Although team boss Vasseur insisted last season that his drivers were on equal footing, Corriere now claims that “Vasseur has hardened, following the line of president [John] Elkann who needs a team with only one striker, and that striker will have to be Leclerc. “.
The report went so far as to claim that the 2024 Ferrari F1, the SF-24, “supports Charles’ driving taste and will give him more confidence” in the car.
And the factor of Sainz’s signing has also been clouded by the withdrawal of Estrella Galicia, “a sponsor valued between 8 and nine million a year” that historically supports Sainz’s family and signed with Ferrari at the request of Sainz’s father, Carlos. Sainz Sr. to “strengthen his son’s position”. They left Ferrari for McLaren.
But on the other hand, Mundo Deportivo insists that there is “no challenge or tension” between Sainz and Ferrari, “nor any disagreement”, because “Ferrari is satisfied with Carlos and the Spaniard is also satisfied with the red team. “
The thirteen drivers at the end of their contracts at the end of the 2024 F1 season
F1 Driver Salaries Revealed 2024: Who Are the Highest Paid Drivers on the Network?
Stating that reports that Sainz has a three-year contract or more with Ferrari “are not true”, he claims that the hypothesis about Sainz and Ferrari is nothing more than “silly season” talk.
“In this regard,” the report reads, “the relationship between Ferrari and Carlos is clear: there are no tensions, fights or disagreements. “
Sainz himself has made that clear.
“You already know that I will do my part, everything I can to continue in a team like Ferrari,” said the Spaniard.
“My priority, of course, is to continue at Ferrari. No I can think of a better position in F1 at the moment than a team like Ferrari, which has the ambition to win again.
“I want to win some other race as soon as possible and, if possible, fight for a world championship.
“And since we both share a goal, if on top of that that team is Ferrari, then I don’t see why not continue.”
Read next: Is Carlos Sainz the most wanted and unwanted driver on the F1 grid?