Ferrari has certainly been the focus of attention for F1 fans and media alike since the winter break. First, they announce that Lewis Hamilton will be replacing Carlos Sainz in 2025. Then, both their drivers pull off wins in the first half of the season, as Carlos Sainz won in Australia and Charles Leclerc won his home race of Monaco.
Since then, things seem to be relatively calm, especially since the whole team has come to piece with the departure of Carlos Sainz. That’s what Team Principal Fred Vasseur thinks as well. Throughout the entire process, Vasseur claims that Sainz has been quite the professional. This was the case especially this past weekend during the Belgian Grand Prix, saying that that him signing for Williams has never been a distraction for him.
Vasseur especially highlighted Sainz’s performance in qualifying, saying that Sainz went above and beyond.
“Honestly, he did a mega great job the last couple of weeks. He had a bit more questions from yourself and your side than before and somehow it’s a kind of distraction but if you have a look yesterday that he did a mega job, Q1, Q2 it’s only the last lap of Q3 that he made a mistake turn 1. You don’t have to draw a conclusion on the fact that he braked just 5 metres too late on turn 1.
It’s not a consequence of something that he was in front of Charles Q1, Q2 and if you have a look on the first part of the season, considering the fact that he missed Jeddah he’s doing very well. He’s very professional, very consistent and it was part of my motivation at the beginning to do the announcement quite early and to have him fully focused. I knew that at one stage he will have to sign somewhere and this could be a distraction but it was much better to anticipate it and honestly the approach of Carlos is mega professional and he was mega professional from day 1 this season as it was last year and I can’t complain at all about the behaviour of Carlos.”
