Carlos Sainz between anger and patience at Toro Rosso
Carlos Sainz is about to embark on his third consecutive season with Toro Rosso. But he's beginning to feel that time is running out in Faenza, and has his sights set higher.
If he had an initial year of learning in 2015, Carlos Sainz achieved a great year in 2016 with 46 points and a twelfth place finish.
Under these conditions, he would have hoped to be promoted, but the parent company, Red Bull, has been full since Max Verstappen’s promotion mid-last season, even though the comparison between the two drivers was not entirely unfavorable to him. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper *El Pais*, he considers that he was simply in the right place at the wrong time: « If I had performed like this in 2012 or 2013, I think I would have had a seat at Red Bull. But now the team is full, they are very happy with their drivers, and I don’t have my position. With these results and this season, in any other season, they would have given me a seat at Red Bull. That’s life, and Formula 1 is so difficult to understand. Be patient, it will come. »
Nevertheless, if he knew since April that he would not be with Red Bull, he was extended with Toro Rosso in June. If Red Bull chose to exercise its option so early in the season, it was because they wanted to guard against a potential move to Renault, which was searching for top-tier drivers: « It’s complicated. Doing a Formula 1 season like the one I just had is very difficult. That’s precisely why I’m angry about not moving forward. We have a very interesting offer from Renault. In the end, it was rejected by both me and Red Bull. That’s life. You have a very good season and… »
If he would have liked to join Enstone, he never considered being on the list of candidates for the position left vacant by Nico Rosberg at Mercedes as he remains tied to the Red Bull brand: « My career is managed by Red Bull. They want me to continue at Toro Rosso and I also wanted to do another year here. My chances of going to Mercedes were one percent. So I didn’t think about it, and it didn’t go to my head as it was said in the press with a lot of comments and speculation. »
Now that he has come to terms with staying, he knows he must maintain his level of play in 2017 in order to hope for something better in 2018: I am the one who hopes the most to make the leap to an official team in 2018 but right now I am focused on this season. My chance for 2018 will only appear if I have a good year in 2017. Even though I would love to be in a big team, that’s not the case. I’m with Toro Rosso and I have to have a very good year to open all possible doors.
Here are comments that we rarely hear in the refined world of F1, especially at Red Bull where Helmut Marko, who reigns supreme over the careers of young drivers, cannot tolerate even the slightest contradiction. Pierre Gasly is well-placed to discuss this…
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
