Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari predecessor makes blunt F1 title admission

Carlos Sainz has conceded Ferrari’s chances of winning an F1 world title this year have “only increased” with Lewis Hamilton’s arrival.

Sainz has been replaced by Hamilton at Ferrari this season as the seven-time world champion completed a blockbuster switch from F1 rivals Mercedes.

Ferrari ended 2024 with a very strong car and narrowly missed out on a first constructors’ world championship since 2008 to McLaren.

And Sainz, who has joined Williams for 2025, believes Ferrari are in a strong position to end their F1 title drought with Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

“I’ve never been team-mates with Lewis, so I don’t know what he’s capable of doing. I’ve never seen his data,” the Spaniard said.

“I’ve seen Charles [Leclerc] and I know how good Charles is, but I’ve never been team-mates with Lewis. And the only way you can more or less evaluate a driver is when you’re their team-mate and you see what they’re capable of doing.

“When I judge by results and his background and what he’s achieved, I can only say there is a very high chance that obviously he is going to be competitive at Ferrari.

“But like everything, it will all depend on how well you can adapt to a car, how well you can adapt to a team and in which moment your team-mate is in. There are so many variables that it is impossible for me to predict.

“I can only say when I left Ferrari, I did feel the team – both Ferrari and Charles – were ready to fight for a World Championship. And with Lewis joining, that chance only got increased.”

Sainz ‘understands’ Ferrari’s decision

Speaking to F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast last year, Sainz said he could understand Ferrari’s decision to sign Hamilton and insisted he has no hard feelings.

“I understand [Ferrari’s choice] and I think I understood it almost right from the beginning,” Sainz said. “I think, if it had been someone else, I would have taken a lot longer to understand.

“But when you understand Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, and one of the best – if not the best – in history, is going to replace you at Ferrari, and Lewis has decided to do the last part of his career in Ferrari, you need to be one of the two drivers sacrificed for that to happen.

“I understand it was never going to be Charles [who was replaced]. Charles has been the project of Ferrari ever since he’s been a junior driver. He’s been the centre of the project for many years.

“I arrived at Ferrari more as a substitute of [Sebastian] Vettel, almost a bit… not by chance, but circumstantial, rather than Charles who has been there forever.

“So I understood I had to be the one being replaced and I understood it from the beginning. I just obviously didn’t agree so much at the time. But you end up agreeing and you end up getting on with it.”