Carlos Sainz opened up on the timeline of negotiations which ultimately resulted in Ferrari dropping him for Lewis Hamilton for F1 2025.

A decision which left him “completely shocked”, Sainz revealed that is was actually a friend of his who called to tell him Ferrari were not renewing his contract, with seven-time World Champion Hamilton signed as his future replacement.

Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari: Right call to replace Carlos Sainz?

It was a decision made by Ferrari before the 2024 campaign got underway, meaning Sainz, and Hamilton at Mercedes, both had to contest the full season knowing it would be their last with their respective teams.

In an appearance on the High Performance podcast, Sainz gave a detailed recollection of his negotiations with Ferrari, explaining how he went from certainty that his future was at Maranello to suddenly finding out he needed to find a new team.

Sainz subsequently agreed a multi-year deal with Williams.

“I think it was around end of January or February,” Sainz began.

“I was in the middle of my training preparation for the 2024 season, I was hopeful that the Ferrari was going to be a competitive car.

“I had done everything in December and January, obviously, to prepare myself for that season.

“Contract negotiations with Ferrari were a bit stalled in a weird way, because we were talking since October to renew my contract.

“They kept postponing the point of signing and the point of coming to an agreement.

“But I never felt suspicious and I never felt like it was not going to happen, because every feedback that I was getting was, ‘We’re going to continue, for sure, this is just going to take only a couple hours to agree to the economics side of things and the two or three things we need to agree on your future contract. But it’s going to be an easy contract, and we will do it very quickly.’

“And I was like, ‘Okay, okay.’

“So I just went into the winter with that mentality of it will get sorted before race one of the ’24 season.

“And suddenly, in the middle of January, end of January, I receive a phone call and they suddenly tell me the news. I heard from a friend that called me.

“I was completely shocked. I went from believing I was going to be in Ferrari for a while, to suddenly Lewis is replacing me, and ‘What am I going to do now.’

“It never occurred to me that that could happen, and it was a bit shocking.”

Sainz was linked with almost every team on the grid – including Red Bull and Mercedes – before joining Williams, the Spaniard delivering an impressive 2024 campaign which yielded two grand prix wins, doubling his F1 victory tally to four.

Sainz believes that shock to the system delivered by Ferrari unlocked a new level in him.

“It took me a good week to accept it and to assimilate it,” Sainz continued. “You never get too much of a reaction from me. I think I’m quite level-headed in that sense.

“But that gave me a bit of a kick and I think it made me a better athlete, a better driver.

“And what came out of me in March, April, May was probably a best version of myself as a racing driver to date.”

Latest F1 2025 head-to-head standings from PlanetF1.com

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Asked for more details on the mindset change he went through, from the shock of being axed by Ferrari, to making an on-track statement, Sainz added: “For me, if there’s nothing you can do… Which at that point, there was nothing I could do, there was zero chance.

“The contract was signed, I was out. Next thing. What is the next possible thing that I can do?

“Look at different options. My next options. Obviously, I called everyone. If you have a five, ten per cent chance, I would still try and fight for it.

“But the moment you have zero chance, you need to move on and you need to seek for your next option and try and prove yourself.”

Sainz struggled in the early stages of his Williams career, team-mate Alex Albon having put 46 points on the board to Sainz’s 13 so far in F1 2025, but progress has been made with Sainz scoring points in five of his last eight grands prix.

Read next: Leclerc confirms ‘very interesting’ Lewis Hamilton feedback after Ferrari switch