During the 2022 Formula 1 season, Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc took part in several demonstration runs behind the wheel of historic Ferrari Formula 1 cars, while Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel also experienced the thrill by driving Nigel Mansell’s championship-winning 1992 Williams FW14B at Silverstone during the British Grand Prix weekend a few weeks ago.
However, we should not expect Carlos Sainz to take part in such demo runs, as the Spaniard confirmed he is in “two minds” as to whether he would ever get behind the wheel of a car from yesteryear again.
Four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel carried out a few laps in Nigel Mansell’s title-winning Williams FW14B at Silverstone, while Charles Leclerc had a very special experience as he piloted Gilles Villeneuve’s legendary Ferrari 312T 1979 car around Ferrari’s Fiorano Circuit earlier in May. A few days later, Charles also got behind the wheel of three-time world champion Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312 B3 at a demonstration in Monaco, but due to a brake problem, the Monegasque driver lost control of the car and hit the barrier. Given the circumstances, Carlos Sainz is still not sure if it’s the kind of risk he’s willing to take anymore.
“I had the opportunity to [test an old Ferrari] in the past,” said Carlos – “It always gives you a vision of how the sport was a long time ago. I’m in two minds with it because why would you risk it? Like, why? You’re in the middle of a Ferrari championship-winning chance. Why would you risk having this situation like happened to him [Charles Leclerc]? But at the same time, when else are you going to have this opportunity to drive these cars? So, every time I jump in a classic Formula 1 car, I have these things in my head. And if I’m jumping in a car, I’m going to push it. I don’t know how to jump in a car and put the elbow out and drive around. I have no idea how to do this.” – the Ferrari driver explained.
Carlos Sainz then added: “I can only jump in and feel it and feel how these cars felt, so every time I’m going to jump in, I’m going to push the car. And these things can happen.”
The Spanish driver was then asked to comment on his current partnership with his Maranello teammate Charles Leclerc, which started at the beginning of the 2021 Formula 1 season, with the two of them racing in 35 Grands Prix together for the Italian side until now:
“For sure, Charles always produces extremely good laps, through free practice into qualifying and this year also very good race pace like we have seen. It’s always a great reference to have in the team, a great guy to get on with, a guy that I really have learned a lot from in the past few years and a guy that I look forward to having as a team mate for the future. Because I feel that we get on well and we have a good partnership. We get to spend a lot of time together, both in Maranello and at the track and we normally have very similar opinions about a lot of stuff. And apart from that when it’s time to have fun, we also can have fun with each other and play some sports and everything. Not everything is super serious, and the team depend on it, the relationship with us and I hope we can keep it that way because it makes things easier.” – Carlos Sainz concluded.
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