Carlos Sainz encouraged by Ferrari’s recruitment process. Carlos Sainz has signed a two-year deal with Ferrari.

Carlos Sainz is encouraged that Ferrari have looked beyond just his 2019 results when making the decision to sign him.

Sainz was part of the first big bombshell in Formula 1’s annual ‘silly season’ as he was announced as Sebastian Vettel’s replacement, with Ferrari ultimately deciding against renewing the four-time World Champion’s contract.

The Spaniard was clearly lined up by the Scuderia as the announcement of his arrival came just two days after Vettel’s exit confirmation and, judging by Sainz’s comments, was the end of a thorough analysis of him as a Formula 1 driver.

A stellar 2019 campaign for Sainz at McLaren was referenced as one of the main reasons for Ferrari to sign him but he said the scouting process was much deeper than that.

“For sure it [2019] helped, everything helps, but from what I know at Ferrari there were a lot of other factors for signing me than 2019,” he told select media including MotorsportWeek.com – “Many people talk about the Brazil podium or the P6 in the Championship but when I got to know the analysis that the big teams do about the driving performance of everyone you realise how much into detail they go and they don’t look only for the big number. That made me feel a bit relieved as the career of a Formula 1 driver is very tricky.” – he explained.

Carlos Sainz feels that trickiness is down to a whole host of different variables involved in assessing a Formula 1 driver, something that he has seen Ferrari take into consideration: “If it could be like a tennis player or a 100-metre sprinter where you only depend on yourself for performance it would be a lot easier to judge a Formula 1 driver. But we have a lot of other factors than our performance and more variables than any other sport. At least what I saw from Ferrari, they try and take those variables out of the way to try and isolate the driver’s performance. It’s something that kind of made me feel a bit relieved to see teams are looking into the detail and the big picture, not only about the result, P6 in the championship or the podium in Brazil, they are looking for a lot more things.” – he added.

Carlos Sainz has signed a two-year deal with Ferrari and will join Charles Leclerc in 2021 to forge the youngest driver line-up in the Scuderia’s history.