Many wondered how it would affect Carlos Sainz to know that at the end of this season he did not have a team, after Ferrari’s decision to sign Hamilton for 2025 before even starting this season. The Madrid native’s response has been to add a podium in the first race and a victory in the third, the only two that he has contested.
Added to the fact that his team did not renew him was the fact that he missed the Saudi Arabia GP due to appendicitis. And on his return, even without being 100% physically, he amazed everyone with the front row and then won with superiority.
Damon Hill F1 world champion in 1996, praised what Sainz had achieved, pointing to Ferrari’s departure and his reaction.
When asked on the podcast F1 Nation If the victory in Australia was more surprising than last year’s in Singapore, he replied: “I think so. I think considering everything that, you know, has happened… The fact that they told him that he no longer It was necessary when this year ends.”
“I think that might demotivate someone. But he doesn’t have that kind of personality and it’s basically freed him up to maybe go and say, ‘Well, I’m here for me. And I’m going to use this Ferrari and I’m going to do what I know how to do.’ , and you can tell me to stop or whatever, but it doesn’t matter because I’m fighting for my survival,” praised Hill, who sees Sainz as a very feisty person, one of those who doesn’t break down in the face of problems.
“When someone is down, he either gets back up or keeps crawling on the ground, and it hasn’t happened to him, he’s not that type of person. He has shown that he knows how to fight, and the fight is really powerful. And I think that said it fantastically well over the Melbourne weekend.”
Look: Carlos Sainz’s epic recovery to win in Australia after his appendicitis
“Yes, I think that’s a very good point you make,” he responded when reminded that he had undergone surgery for appendicitis and that his replacement Ollie Bearman had earned a lot of praise. “Because we weren’t sure he could drive, and you look at his face, and his face is completely different. He lost a lot of weight. So, not being able to train as hard, not being able to build up his energy reserves and so on, it’s amazing how what have you done”.
Sainz is the only ‘non-Red Bull’ driver who has won races in F1 since 2022, and the only one beyond Max Verstappen who has done so since April 2023. That led Hill to be asked if he considered that right now he was above of his teammate Charles Leclerc, and replied: “I’m not supposed to say this, right? But I think I’ve felt it since Silverstone [2022]when Carlos was giving instructions to the team about their strategy.”
“And Carlos would be like ‘tell me what to do’, or get upset because he was given team orders. Those are characteristics of a driver who is aware that he is capable of dealing with a lot more information when he is driving. Carlos is intelligent, and I think that in Australia he has shown that he is not only a driver who thinks, but that he is also fast, and in the race, Charles, for whatever reason, was surpassed by Carlos and also by himself,” he concluded.
