"New family!" - Carlos Sainz makes his first appearance in Ferrari colours
Carlos Sainz has formally begun his new career chapter as a Scuderia Ferrari driver after making his first visit to Maranello in preparation for the 2021 F1 season.
The Spaniard was announced to be joining Ferrari from McLaren before the delayed 2020 F1 season got underway, Sainz brought on to replace the outgoing Sebastian Vettel and pairing up with Charles Leclerc.
Posting images to his social media accounts, Sainz is seen wearing Ferrari apparel and sitting inside the cockpit with the message (translated as) ‘Hi everyone, new colour, new family’.
Sainz’s switch to Ferrari comes after two impressive years with McLaren Racing, during which he was credited as a major driving force behind a turnaround that yielded the team’s first podiums in five years.
Finishing sixth overall each of the past two seasons, Sainz’s efforts helped McLaren reach third in the 2020 F1 constructors’ standings, its best result since 2012.
Ciao a tutti!!
— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) December 19, 2020
Nuovo colore, nuova famiglia!@ScuderiaFerrari
-#Carlossainz #essereFerrari pic.twitter.com/tQOZla66E0
The 26-year old’s chance at Ferrari comes six years after making his F1 debut with Toro Rosso though does so at a potentially inopportune time after the Italian firm endured one of the worst seasons in its history en route to sixth overall and only three podiums.
With regulations remaining largely unchanged for 2021, the focus for Sainz and Ferrari is likely to be trained on 2022 when it has a chance to revive its fortunes with a major overhaul.
Sainz’s arrival comes amid a broad overhaul in the driver market with only three teams - Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton’s contract talks notwithstanding), Alfa Romeo and Williams - sticking with the same line-up for 2021.
