Carlos Sainz had his first day at Maranello with Charles Leclerc and Mattia Binotto, as he starts his Ferrari journey ahead of the 2021 F1 season.
While the F1 world received the news of Alexander Albon getting replaced by Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing for 2021, and the Top 3 of 2020 receiving their trophies at the FIA Gala, Sainz traveled to Maranello for his first day with his new team, Ferrari.
Even though Sainz is contracted to McLaren until the end of this year but with the relation he has with the management, it seems like, he was allowed to travel to Maranello for a tour of the factory and also start with the basics like seat fitting for 2021 F1 season.
Sainz also met his side of engineers and mechanics. His future teammate Leclerc was at Maranello, as well, to attend some end of season meetings. The two drivers along with Binotto spoke to selected media virtually – the new norm from F1 teams this year.
In the same talk, Binotto revealed that the car will be named as ‘SF21’, considering 2021 will be a transitional year. The Italian also talked about two-part unveil, where the first will solely be for its drivers and the second will be the car during the Barcelona test.
“It’s the first time in red, which is obviously, as you can imagine, pretty special,” said Sainz to media including Motorsport Network, F1, AMuS, BBC, Racefans.net and more. “It’s a special day for me in general. And it’s probably a day I will never forget. I’m fully ready, fully motivated here today already, after leaving the UK yesterday.
“So totally new, and totally refreshed for this new challenge. There will be some Christmas and some holidays to disconnect, and to make sure we recharge the batteries as quick as possible. But you can be sure I’m going to be here pretty early in January to keep pushing, to keep helping this team to move forward as quick as possible in the best direction.
“I cannot wait to be honest. Today I had already my first meetings, my first look around the factory, and it’s something that I will never forget,” summed up Sainz, as team boss Binotto spoke about free-to-race ideology between him and Leclerc.
Here’s more photos of Carlos Sainz from his Maranello visit:
Here’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz featuring in Top 10 rankings