Ferrari did thorough investigation into Sainz: "Listened to all radio messages"

Carlos Sainz will join Ferrari in 2021. The Spaniard is leaving the strong McLaren team and will drive alongside Charles Leclerc at the team that is seeking its way back to the top. At Ferrari, they conducted thorough research before making Sainz an offer. All his on-board radios were listened to.

Early on in 2020, it became clear that Sebastian Vettel would not be staying on at Ferrari in 2021. The desired success did not materialize. Sainz was immediately appointed as his replacement. Although the choice seemed to be a quick one, there had been extensive analysis involving a thorough investigation of the Spaniard.

For example, team boss Mattia Binotto reveals to the F1 podcast Beyond the Grid that Sainz's entire radio communication did not escape inspection either: "Before we offered him a contract, we listened to all his radio communications to hear how he communicates with his team."

Binotto extracted a lot of useful information from McLaren and Sainz's radio messages: "You could see that the way of communicating tells a lot about the way he handles things, very precisely. He is a hard worker, works methodically and is robust. I think those were all aspects that were important to us."

Of course, this was not Ferrari's only research point. Binotto also indicated that he was impressed with the Spaniard's speed and the way he performed against his strong teammate Lando Norris. "Moreover, he is still young, while he does have years of experience in F1. There is a lot of time for development and he is not at the end of his career yet," said the Ferrari chief.