Carlos Sainz 'Surprised' By Ferrari's Decision To Replace Him With Lewis Hamilton

One of the biggest pieces of news to hit the Formula 1 world in recent memory came when Lewis Hamilton's 2025 move to Ferrari was announced last month.

Want to know who was especially surprised? The guy Hamilton will be replacing: Carlos Sainz.

Sainz has spent the last three seasons at Ferrari, and the results have been mixed. He won the first race of his career with the team, but he faced battles with inconsistency.

However, the idea of keeping Sainz with Charles Leclerc — who recently signed a new deal of his own — seemed like the way to go.

Then came the Hamilton announcements.

Sainz told Sky Sports News at the unveiling of Ferrari's 2024 car, the SF-24, that news of Hamilton's pending arrival caught him off-guard, especially because he was having talks about re-upping with the Scuderia.

"There was always good talks and positive talks and then obviously it is true that at one point I got to know about this and it surprised me I guess as much as it surprised you in the UK," he said.

Sainz said that the team informed him of the decision before it was made public — which was nice of them — however, he said he faced some initial shock.

"As I said, it surprised me but it also gave me a bit of time to think about it, to realize what was happening and try to move forward and thinking that with still one year ahead of us in Ferrari, I wanted to close off my chapter here in the best possible way."

Carlos Sainz will be one of the biggest pieces of the drivers market puzzle. (Getty Images)

Sainz Is About To Be One Of The Biggest Names On The Drivers Market Ahead Of 2025

I get being surprised by the news. Although, unless your name is Max Verstappen and maybe Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, or Lando Norris, if your team has the chance to replace you with a seven-time world champ they're going to.

And Sainz knows that.

"Sometimes it's your turn to move over, other times you arrive there, and I'm mature enough, I've been in this business long enough, to know how these things work," he said after saying he had no hard feelings toward Hamilton.

There's no doubt Sainz would've wanted to stay at Ferrari. He alluded to working on a new deal after all. However, I don't think there's been a better time for him to hit the open market. There will be available seats up and down the grid including one at Mercedes and in all likelihood, Red Bull too.

Depending on how those seats get filled there could be some pretty attractive options at places like Aston Martin or a Williams team that looks to be on the rise.

There's also Audi's upcoming 2026 arrival on the grid. They'll take over the current Stake F1 team (or as we'll all probably call it, Sauber). Sainz would be a nice option if the team wants a veteran team leader.

So, while this may not be ideal for Sainz and caught him off guard, he's going to be one of the hottest commodities on the driver market.