Carlos Sainz agrees with Frederic Vasseur about his F1 contract talks as he reckons Ferrari has more things to handle than driver contract.
Even though Sainz is contracted to be with Ferrari until the end of 2024 F1 season, discussions around his future has already begun especially with the rumours around him joining Audi. The Spaniard has put those down multiple times but it still continues on.
Amid the lack of results from Ferrari’s end, team boss Vasseur stated that they have more at hand to solve rather than discuss driver contract at the moment. The Frenchman also praised the performances of Sainz. “I was clear with the team at the beginning of the season, and I was also clear with the drivers, that I need to get to know the team first. And it takes months,” he said.
“They still have a one-year contract, so I don’t think it’s an issue that needs to be discussed now. We’ll certainly talk about it in the future, but it’s not the first concern. The priority, for everyone, is to focus on the team, especially this season. I don’t want there to be any distracting elements. And Carlos is very consistent.
“He is able to manage his own pace and does it a little better than Charles. He doesn’t overdrive, but he doesn’t have the big peaks of Charles, when, for example, he takes pole positions. Sometimes he is very close to him. In Miami, up to the last corner, he was on pole. He limits the bad mistakes and he’s always there,” summed up Vasseur.
Sainz pretty much concurs with his boss about the timeline. He understands that there is time left and in the current summer break he will have time to think about what he wants to do. But it won’t be until after 2023 that he will serious start thinking about his future.
“I personally agree with Fred,” said Sainz. “I think in Ferrari right now there’s much bigger priorities than sorting out the future of its drivers. Also, personally, with so many races consecutively, it’s not like you can stop for a minute and really think about your future and what you want to do and what do you see in the next two or three years happening for you. I think with so many back-to-backs, so many races, it’s difficult.
“I’m not going to lie, there’s the three-week break in August that I will start maybe thinking a bit what I would be happy with or, or whatever. And then the winter break, that I think is what I said in that interview a while ago, that it will be time to start figuring out where I will be racing in ’25.
“But going back to Fred, I fully agree, because in Ferrari there’s much bigger priorities, much bigger, more important things that we need to sort out in the short term. And that is my priority: to be competitive with Ferrari, not only this year, but also next year that I still have a contract in place and get next year’s car right and get it better than where we are now,” summed up Sainz.
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Here’s Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri on Lap 1 incident