Ferrari signs Carlos Sainz for 2021

After parting ways with Sebastian Vettel, the Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow team has announced that they have signed Carlos Sainz for the 2021 season.

After announcing on Tuesday that Sebastian Vettel would be leaving the team at the end of the 2020 F1 season, Ferrari confirmed that it has signed a two-year contract with Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard will form an exciting driver line-up with Charles Leclerc.

Born in Madrid on 1st September 1994, Sainz joined Formula 1 in 2015 as team-mate of Max Verstappen. Driving for three different teams, the 25-year-old has completed 102 Grands Prix since. At the end of 2017, he joined the Renault Sport F1 Team where he completed 25 races. He made his debut for McLaren at the start of 2019 and is set to leave the Woking-based outfit at the end of the current season.

"I am very happy that I will be driving for Scuderia Ferrari in 2021 and I'm excited about my future with the team. I still have an important year ahead with McLaren Racing and I’m really looking forward to going racing again with them this season," Sainz added.

The exciting driver pairing of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will be the youngest in the past fifty years of the Scuderia. Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto said that he expects his team to get back to winning ways despite expecting difficulties posed by the new financial situation and the cost cap that is set to be introduced in 2021.

"I’m pleased to announce that Carlos will join Scuderia Ferrari as of the 2021 championship. With five seasons already behind him, Carlos has proved to be very talented and has shown that he has the technical ability and the right attributes to make him an ideal fit with our family.

“We’ve embarked on a new cycle with the aim of getting back to the top in Formula 1. It will be a long journey, not without its difficulties, especially given the current financial and regulatory situation, which is undergoing a sudden change and will require this challenge to be tackled in a different way to the recent past," he said.