Sainz surprised by Hamilton's transfer: 'Had time to process it'

By recruiting Lewis Hamilton for the 2025 season, Ferrari managed to surprise friend and foe alike. The arrival of the seven-time world champion also implies that Carlos Sainz will leave the Scuderia after next season. During the presentation of the SF-24, the Spaniard was naturally asked about the emerging situation, but he was not allowed to elaborate too long.

The press secretary is relentless. After a journalist in a media session - where GPblog was present - asked Sainz about Hamilton's arrival, the spokesperson immediately intervened: "Let me just start saying this. Probably Carlos is going to reply to your question, anyway [he wants to]… He's going to say what he wants to say about the topic, the topic of Lewis, and all he wants to say about the topic, and then probably he will not want to answer any more questions. So please listen to him now and then don't ask any more questions because he won't reply."

Sainz remains on the record about Hamilton

Once Sainz has been given the floor, he says: "Yeah, I think there was, I think obviously a bit of a surprise, like [for] everyone in the Formula One world with the news. I think everyone was surprised in a way with what happened. From my side, you can obviously understand that I got to know the news a bit earlier than anyone else. But it's true that then I had some weeks to reflect, some weeks to prepare and some weeks to also get ready for the car launch, for the first race of the season." 

"So it gives you a bit of time to digest it, to make your own conclusions and to focus in the 2024 season now that there is ahead. But the fact that it was a bit of a surprise to the whole Formula One world is no news, and it was obviously also for me," is all Sainz can and will say about Hamilton.