Carlos Sainz clarifies if he’d still support Charles Leclerc to F1 title after Ferrari axing

Carlos Sainz is happy to support teammate Charles Leclerc if Ferrari ask him to, even though he’s being replaced at the end of the 2024 F1 season.

Sainz will bow out of Ferrari at the end of this year, paving the way for Lewis Hamilton’s sensational arrival.

The Spaniard will look to end his time with Ferrari on a high, adding to his two race victories.

With Sainz on the way out of Ferrari, there were suggestions that he would be unwilling to play the team game or go against them given he’s been replaced.

However, speaking after the launch of the SF-24 earlier this week, Sainz confirmed he would adhere to any team orders.

“Of course. I’ve always been a team player,” Sainz said. “Everything I’ve done in Formula 1 I think I’ve been a great team player, I’ve always been exemplary in that sense as a driver for any team.

“I will definitely help Charles if I have to, the same way that I expect Charles to help me if I fight for a World Championship myself too.”

Despite his chapter with Ferrari coming to an end, Sainz has stated that his objectives are unchanged - winning the world championship.

“I think the amount of pressure that I will put in myself, in the team and my engineers and everyone involved, I think will be exactly the same,” he added.

“The hunger to win races, the hunger to become champions doesn’t change just because of what’s happening in ’25. We all have the same objective. We all have the same ambitions this year.

“And the fact that I’m not going to be a Scuderia Ferrari driver in 2025 doesn’t mean that we don’t want to become champions together this year or win races this year.

“So I think it’s going to be exactly the same. If anything, I can focus even more knowing in the present and then focus more on the race by race, making sure I have the best possible car and feeling underneath me and not having to focus so much on development and in the future.”