Carlos Sainz delivers clear Ferrari-Charles Leclerc team orders verdict with exit sealed

If Ferrari had any concerns regarding Carlos Sainz’s willingness to play the team game in F1 2024, then their fears have been eased.

The latest Formula 1 ‘silly season’ is already up and running in a major way despite the new campaign having not yet gotten underway, with the bombshell dropping that Lewis Hamilton will become a Ferrari driver as of 2025.

That comes at Sainz’s expense, who is preparing for the F1 2024 campaign knowing it will be his final season in Ferrari red.

Carlos Sainz plans to maintain ‘exemplary’ team player image

Ferrari are not an outfit to shy away from issuing team orders to their drivers, but with Sainz knowing he has no long-term future in Maranello, will he still be willing to put Leclerc first if requested to?

Sainz confirmed that he would comply still with Ferrari orders in F1 2024, and expects the same to be true in reverse as well.

Asked by media, including PlanetF1.com’s Sam Cooper, whether he would help Leclerc in an F1 2024 title push if asked to by Ferrari, Sainz replied: “Of course. I’ve always been a team player.

“Everything I’ve done in Formula 1 I think I’ve been a great team player, I’ve always been exemplary in that sense as a driver for any team.

“I will definitely help Charles if I have to, the same way that I expect Charles to help me if I fight for a World Championship myself too.”

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And that “hunger” to fight for the title does not change for Sainz despite the situation, neither does the pressure he will apply on himself or the team to perform.

“I think the amount of pressure that I will put in myself, in the team and my engineers and everyone involved, I think will be exactly the same,” he confirmed.

“The hunger to win races, the hunger to become champions doesn’t change just because of what’s happening in ’25. We all have the same objective. We all have the same ambitions this year.

“And the fact that I’m not going to be a Scuderia Ferrari driver in 2025 doesn’t mean that we don’t want to become champions together this year or win races this year.

“So I think it’s going to be exactly the same. If anything, I can focus even more knowing in the present and then focus more on the race by race, making sure I have the best possible car and feeling underneath me and not having to focus so much in development and in the future.”

Sainz is yet to announce any plans for 2025 and beyond, having been linked with the likes of Mercedes, Williams and Sauber, which will morph into the Audi works team come 2026.

Read next: Carlos Sainz reacts to Lewis Hamilton’s eventual Ferrari arrival in 2025