In line with Ferrari’s home game in Imola this weekend, Ferrari announced on Thursday that it would extend the contract with Carlos Sainz by two years up to and including the 2024 Formula 1 season.
After his successful first season together, in which he clinched four podium places and left his team-mate Charles Leclerc behind in the final Formula 1 drivers’ standings in 2021, Sainz’s two-year contract was expected to be extended quickly.
Team boss Mattia Binotto said in late 2021 that talks between the two sides would start during the winter break. On the sidelines of the presentation of the Ferrari F1-75 for the 2022 season, Sainz confirmed that they were “in the middle of the talks”.
After the season opener in Bahrain, where he secured a Ferrari double by finishing second behind team-mate Leclerc, Sainz added on the subject of the contract that he was “very close, almost there”. At the same time, Binotto said after the Bahrain weekend: “We have found an agreement. It’s just a matter of putting it on paper.”
However, according to recent reports, the two sides have had difficulty agreeing on the exact nature of Sainz’s desired two-year extension until the end of 2024. The Spaniard wants nothing to do with such difficulties. Rather, he points out that the announcement at the Imola weekend was no coincidence.
“You can imagine how much I laughed at home when people started writing these things,” said a cheerful Sainz on Thursday in Imola and continued: “In fact, I was pretty much done with everything. We just still waiting for Imola to announce it.”
According to Sainz, the new agreement with Ferrari was “extremely straightforward”. The Spaniard goes back a few months by saying: “It was very simple. After such a good first year that we’ve had, agreeing on winter was pretty easy for both sides. And it was ideal to now have the opportunity have to announce it in a place like Imola, in front of the tifosi. We just worked out a good plan for the announcement.”
Rumors are “gossip” for Sainz
When asked how important the term of his new contract is, Sainz replies: “That’s the key. It’s no longer a secret that lately it’s become important not only to me, but also to other drivers to focus fully on the Being able to concentrate on performance and racing and not having to think too much about the future.”
In the first seven years of his Formula 1 career, the young Sainz was under contract with four teams: Toro Rosso, Renault, McLaren and Ferrari. He has now found the stability he was looking for with the latter team. Sainz concludes the latest rumors that he and Ferrari suddenly had difficulties in coming to an agreement with the words: “Fun times, as always in Formula 1, with all the gossip.”