Rosberg: 'Sainz doesn't have it in him yet to be world champion'

Carlos Sainz is still waiting for his first win in Formula 1. The Spaniard has the car to compete for wins, but due to his own mistakes, reliability problems and maybe some bad luck, it hasn't happened yet. Nico Rosberg gives his opinion on the driver Sainz in conversation with Sky Sports .

The Madrid native could smell victory in the Canadian Grand Prix, but (despite driving on fresher tyres) he came up just short of edging Max Verstappen out of first place. It summarizes his season so far. 

Big difference with Leclerc

"He’s got it in him to be a good decent driver for Ferrari," said Rosberg, who adds: "At the moment he’s not got it in him to be a world champion. Because on performance, Leclerc has been out driving him every single race this year. He still needs to make quite a bit of progress to be on level terms with Leclerc. He’s still somewhat away from him."

In his debut year at Ferrari, Sainz beat his teammate over a full season, but that scenario doesn't appear to be happening again in 2022. Rosberg sees that Leclerc is a lot more comfortable in F1-75. "It comes as a bit of a surprise after last year but the car is completely different so maybe it just takes him more time to get on top of things.”

Confidence in Sainz

Despite the difficult start to the season, Ferrari does have a lot of confidence in Sainz. Two months ago, the Italian team announced that the 27-year-old driver has been allowed to extend his contract until 2024. The next two seasons we see Ferrari in Formula 1 again with the line-up Leclerc-Sainz.