Carlos Sainz has revealed the remarkable depth of Ferrari’s analysis before the Italian team decided to sign him, explaining that Mattia Binotto and Laurent Mekies presented him with a detailed dossier covering six years of his Formula 1 performances. The evaluation went far beyond headline results, incorporating his record against team-mates, qualifying statistics and even his performance as track conditions changed between wet and dry.
Now racing for Williams, the Madrid-born driver used his experience with Ferrari to explain just how extensively Formula 1 teams can evaluate a potential signing before negotiations reach their decisive stages. Sainz admitted that even he had not realised how much information Ferrari had gathered about him before selecting him for a seat at Maranello.
Ferrari built a six-year Carlos Sainz performance dossier
Driver negotiations may largely take place away from public view, but Sainz’s account offers an insight into the analytical work that can precede a major Formula 1 signing. When Ferrari recruited him, the Scuderia already had a substantial body of performance information available to assess what he could offer the team.
Sainz recalled that, when he joined Ferrari, then-team principal Mattia Binotto and Laurent Mekies showed him a dossier containing his performance data from the previous six years. The information compared his results and performances both with his team-mates and with the wider Formula 1 grid.
The level of detail took the Spaniard by surprise. Before arriving at Maranello, Sainz had raced for Toro Rosso, Renault and McLaren, and he naturally expected Ferrari to have some knowledge of his strengths and weaknesses. What he had not anticipated was the extent to which the Italian team had studied individual aspects of his driving.
According to Sainz, Ferrari possessed detailed information about his wet-weather performance, how he handled transitions between dry and wet conditions, his qualifying record and specific Q1 statistics. The team had effectively conducted a comprehensive scouting exercise before deciding that he was the driver it wanted.
Ferrari did not use the dossier solely to identify Sainz’s strengths. The analysis also contained statistics highlighting areas in which the team believed he could improve, giving the driver a detailed picture of how Maranello had assessed his performance before he had even begun working within the organisation.
Carlos Sainz surprised by Ferrari’s depth of analysis
For Sainz, the experience demonstrated how sophisticated driver evaluation has become in Formula 1. Teams have access to tools capable of examining far more than championship points, podium finishes or conventional race results when deciding which driver best fits their plans.
The Spaniard explained that he was pleasantly surprised by Ferrari’s ability to monitor such specific areas and study a driver in considerable depth. That assessment also helped explain why the Scuderia ultimately chose him despite Daniel Ricciardo having initially been its first option.
Sainz subsequently spent four seasons alongside Charles Leclerc at Ferrari before moving to Williams. During his time in red, his performance was constantly measured against one of Formula 1’s most highly regarded qualifiers, making the internal comparison another example of how much information teams can extract from drivers competing in identical machinery. Historical Ferrari stories involving the Spaniard can be explored through ScuderiaFans’ coverage of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc’s performance comparison.
Why Sainz believes his approach does not depend on the car
Beyond the details of Ferrari’s scouting process, Sainz also emphasised the consistency of his own working mentality. He explained that his mindset and approach remain unchanged regardless of whether he is competing near the front or further down the starting grid.
Although the Williams driver acknowledged that he would naturally prefer to be fighting for victories and podium finishes, he maintained that the level of effort he puts into his performance does not depend on the competitiveness of the car beneath him.
That approach is particularly relevant to his current Williams chapter, where Sainz has had to adapt to different characteristics after leaving Ferrari. His comments about the FW47 have previously highlighted how sensitive the Williams can be in areas such as tyre preparation, particularly in qualifying. The complexities of those sessions and the challenges faced by Sainz have also been examined in ScuderiaFans’ analysis of how pit-lane tactics affect Formula 1 qualifying. 1
Telemetry gives F1 teams a deeper picture than results alone
Sainz’s recollection provides a revealing example of how a Formula 1 driver market decision can be supported by detailed performance analysis. A driver’s final classification only captures the outcome of a race or season, whereas teams can examine individual qualifying phases, comparisons with team-mates and behaviour under specific track conditions when assessing potential recruits.
In Sainz’s case, Ferrari had accumulated enough information across his spells with Toro Rosso, Renault and McLaren to construct a six-year profile before bringing him to Maranello. The fact that the team was also able to identify potential development areas underlined that the process was not simply designed to justify a decision that had already been made.
Detailed telemetry remains one of the clearest ways to examine differences that conventional timing screens cannot fully explain. Fans can explore the same principle through the ScuderiaFans F1 Qualifying Telemetry & Corner Comparison, which allows qualifying laps to be studied through speed, throttle, braking, gears, RPM and lap-time delta data.
The experience also changed Sainz’s understanding of what happens when a Formula 1 team targets a particular driver. From the outside, negotiations may appear to revolve primarily around contracts, availability and reputation. His Ferrari experience showed that a major team can arrive at those discussions having already built a highly detailed picture of how a driver performs and precisely why it wants him in the car.
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