Carlos Sainz produced a remarkable performance on his return from surgery to win the Australian GP; the Spaniard's display has sparked a debate over his status in F1; listen to the Sainz discussion, and more, on the latest episode of the Sky Sports F1 Podcast
Tuesday 26 March 2024 15:40, UK
Carlos Sainz's stunning victory at the Australian Grand Prix has kickstarted a debate as to whether the Spaniard is Formula 1's most underrated driver.
Just two weeks on from having his appendix removed and subsequently missing the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Sainz completed a remarkable return to action by leading a Ferrari one-two from Charles Leclerc in Melbourne.
The 29-year-old is a free agent for 2025 having been discarded by Ferrari for next season following the signing of Lewis Hamilton, but has delivered a start to the campaign that will have his inbox full of messages from team principals with seats to fill.
Sainz also finished on the podium at the opening race of the season in Bahrain and would likely be ahead of world championship leader Max Verstappen in the drivers' standings had he not missed out in Jeddah.
This wasn't a one-off either. Sainz is the only driver other than the dominant Verstappen to have won any of F1's last 21 races, and the only non-Red Bull driver to have won any of the last 26.
He grabbed the opportunity when it arose at last year's Singapore Grand Prix and was equally clinical at Albert Park as he controlled the race from the front after Verstappen's early retirement.
Questions around Sainz being underrated have undoubtedly been fuelled by Ferrari's decision to release him, despite the Spaniard himself admitting he could understand their decision to recruit the seven-time world champion.
However, there is more to the debate than that, with Sainz rarely mentioned in conversations about the sport's elite drivers.
While Ferrari's official line has always been that their drivers are equal without a clear number one, the fact that Leclerc was retained and Sainz released confirmed that, as most outsiders would have suspected, the 26-year-old Monegasque is held in higher regard.
While the likes of Leclerc, George Russell and Verstappen were fast-tracked, the latter the most rapidly, into a seat at a top team, Sainz has had to grind his way to the front of the grid.
He started his career alongside Verstappen at Red Bull's junior team, then named Toro Rosso, in 2015, before eventually departing for Renault having grown frustrated at being overlooked for a promotion to the senior squad.
However, he completed only one full season with Renault before being replaced by Daniel Ricciardo, and moved on to McLaren.
It was there, driving alongside Lando Norris, that Sainz finally established himself, finishing sixth in the world championship for successive seasons before earning a move to Ferrari.
Doubts over Sainz's pedigree as an elite driver in one of the sport's most desirable seats remained as he went winless in his first campaign, but his victory in Australia levelled his and Leclerc's win tallies at 3-3 during their time together as team-mates.
If there's one place where Sainz isn't under-rated, it's on the grid he shares with F1's other drivers.
"I think everybody knows Carlos' worth in the paddock," Leclerc said on Sunday. "He's one of the highest-rated drivers in the paddock and he's been extremely strong every time he was in a Formula 1 car.
"And he has showed it multiple times. So I don't think he's underrated for that."
Norris, who has been lauded as a future star of the sport despite not yet having claimed his first victory, also holds his former team-mate in hugely high regard.
"There's no reason anyone should think he's underrated," Norris said. "I think for the people who know him, know what he's capable of doing, know his effort level, his approach and dedication to wanting to be one of the best, exactly like he's proved today, and over the last couple of weeks.
"I'm sure you have plenty of drivers who probably wouldn't have tried as hard and dedicated so much of their time and effort to trying to recover and get back in the race car. And I think that's just one example of it.
"But for the people who know what he's capable of doing, you would never ever say he's underrated. Of course, results are always a bit of a point to show and people on the outside just easily judge things from what you see on TV. But when you've worked with him, when you know what he's capable of doing, and when things click, they click very well and he has performances like he does this weekend.
"And I would say all year, he's proved to be a step up from maybe what he has been last year. Yeah, you're silly if you underrate him."
Sky Sports F1's Bernie Collins, who was head of strategy at Aston Martin until 2022, says that Sainz is also respected by teams he has not driven for.
"I don't think he was necessarily underrated," Collins told the Sky Sports F1 Podcast. "I think it's harder to show that ability in a car that's not performing as well. So now that the Ferrari is starting to perform better, we're starting to see these really strong performances, really strong qualifying - starting to outqualify Leclerc, all of these things.
"So I don't think underrated, I think it's just that he's not shone maybe in the same way that he can now a little bit in the Ferrari as the Ferrari performance starts to come on.
"I think we see him as maybe outside externally as the second driver in Ferrari, but the two drivers are very, very close. It's not like a traditional second driver step beyond the first driver. They're very, very close, but we still maybe have this notion of a second driver."
With Mercedes already needing a replacement for Hamilton and Red Bull potentially having a vacancy as Sergio Perez's contract comes to an end, there are interesting options out there for Sainz.
However, before his victory in Australia, it is fair to say that there had been more speculation around Fernando Alonso getting the Mercedes seat than this compatriot.
As for Red Bull, Sainz's decision to "leave the family" in 2017 and question marks over his suitability as a team-mate for Verstappen had limited talk of a move there.
However, after Sunday's race, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted that Sainz cannot be discounted as a contender for their 2025 seat.
Leclerc is in no doubt that his team-mate is a wanted man.
"I think everybody knows Carlos' worth," he said. "And that's why I've said many times that I'm not too worried about his future, because I'm sure that many, many team principals are… He doesn't say it, but for sure they are speaking with him!
"And I'm sure he will have many opportunities and he'll just have to make the best choice for his career."
The other team Sainz has been heavily linked with is one that doesn't technically exist yet, Audi, who will replace Sauber on the grid in 2026.
Sainz has been touted as a possible signing for the German manufacturer, with an attractive element of a possible linkup being that he could have clear number one driver status.
"I think every team should want to take him, and I think Ferrari should maybe be questioning if they've done the right thing," Collins added on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast.
"Every team should be looking at him as a very strong driver to put in their line-up wherever the gaps fall out.
"I think the difficulty for Carlos is, unless the drive comes somewhere like Red Bull, he's going to struggle to get a better car than he already has. And that's the difficulty in terms of him trying to find a position within a team, and maybe he needs to look ahead to the 2026 regulation change, and maybe make a step thinking that next year might not be the year.
"I'm sure he is talking to multiple teams. To bring someone from the improvements that Ferrari have done, how they've changed the car, improved the degradation - all that learning. I think we underrate a little bit when you take a driver from another team the amount of learning that comes with that driver. That will be really key I think."
As for the man himself, Sainz is aware of the high regard he is held in by his peers, and says the noise from beyond that realm isn't of any concern to him.
"I think people that know me or have shared a team with me or people that have worked with me, know me and I don't feel underrated by people that know about this sport," he said.
"Then other people that maybe don't have an insight and don't know as much about this sport, if they want to underrate me, I'm fine with that.
"I don't care honestly, but I care about the people that know the sport well and about my team-mates, the people that have seen my data, seen how I work, seen my speed, and that's the thing I care about, and I don't feel underrated by them."
Acknowledging that he currently remains "jobless" for next year, Sainz insists that his motivations remain the same as ever, and have nothing to do with team principals.
"I do race for myself," he added. "I race to keep proving to myself that I can win whenever I get a competitive car and whenever there's an opportunity to win in a weekend. I don't race to prove to team principals or to prove to people my value.
"I race to prove to myself that if I'm given a car, I can get it done and I can be up there, you know, and that's the mentality and the approach that I have and I will keep having the rest of the year."
Whatever Sainz wants to put it down to, there is little doubt that the Spaniard is producing the best form of his career at a time when he most needs it.
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