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MEXICO CITY — Carlos Sainz climbed onto his bright red Ferrari, spreading his arms wide before pumping his fists in the air.
The emotions were evident. The Spaniard started the Mexico Grand Prix from pole, and although he lost the lead to Max Verstappen, Sainz regained the top spot and delivered one of the strongest drives of his Formula career 1. His race engineer, Ricciardo Adami, called Sunday’s performance a “master class” on the radio at the end of the race.
Sainz is the first driver to win the Mexico GP from pole in eight years and the first Ferrari driver to win the race since 1990, when Alain Prost accomplished the feat. This season is the first time Sainz has won multiple grand prizes – the first in Australia 16 days after surgery and now here in Mexico.
Ferrari was not good enough to enter the constructors’ title fight before the summer break, but its recent improvements have helped propel the Maranello-based team to second place in the standings with four races remaining. . It’s fair to say that Ferrari could be in the race again in 2025 if things stay the course.
But it will be without Sainz.
“Honestly, I really wanted this one – I needed it for myself, I wanted to do it,” Sainz said. “I’ve been saying for a while that I wanted one more win before leaving Ferrari, and to do it here in front of this mega crowd is incredible.
“There are now four races left, I want to enjoy them as much as possible, and if another one comes, I’ll go for it.”
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How did the victory happen?
Sainz had to work for his second victory of the season.
Verstappen took the lead after the grid headed into Turn 1, although this was unsurprising. Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez is a low-grip track and, as the Ferrari driver noted, Red Bull tends to start well at these circuits. Verstappen stayed on the inside of Sainz heading into Turn 1, and although Sainz said he braked as late as he could, Verstappen did the same. This left Sainz “with no space to enter turn 2”. Verstappen came out on top early in the race.
Due to the early collision between Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda, the grid sat behind the safety car for several laps. Verstappen nailed the restart, but Sainz stayed in his mirrors, never letting the Red Bull stray too far from view. He acted in the 9th round.
“With Max, you have to be determined. You have to be decisive,” Sainz said. “If you’re not, you’ll never get past it.” And in this case, I think I took him a little by surprise, and I could make him stick.
With the help of DRS and a tow, Sainz overtook the Dutchman to regain a lead that the Spaniard never relinquished. The Ferrari driver initially seemed too far back to make the move, but in the final 100 meters Sainz said: “I felt like I had good momentum and I felt very confident braking into Turn 1 this weekend. The car gave me confidence to brake late there, and I went for it, and it happened. Also, that mentality of knowing that I had a little less to lose in this battle and that I could be aggressive and throw one.
He described it as a “high tension” moment as a chaotic battle unfolded between Verstappen and Lando Norris behind him. This resulted in the Red Bull driver receiving two 10-second time penalties, which he served during the first pit stop.
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Once Sainz regained the lead, there were around 60 laps remaining. There was a lot of action happening throughout the race, like Liam Lawson taking on Sergio Pérez or Norris chasing Charles Leclerc in those final laps. Ahead of them, the race seemed rather trouble-free for Sainz, apart from the report of a misfire. He said it was an “isolated incident”.
“The only misfire I had the whole race was coming out of turn 3. Landing after the curb, I did a little gear change and that gave me a misfire, which was a little scary, but we had some over the weekend and we know it’s due to the altitude and the mapping,” Sainz said. “But once I was in the lead, I had confidence in my pace, in my management, and I knew that this weekend I had been very fast, and I knew that I had to do everything I had planned, and victory was possible.”
Sainz retook the lead from Verstappen with a daring lunge into Turn 1. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
Around lap 49, Sainz also said on the radio that he felt Ferrari was pushing too hard. It was a double at the Prancing Horse at the time, and Leclerc wasn’t far behind. The Monegasque driver, however, lost second place in a battle with Norris. He loses the rear and almost hits the barriers, saving him at the last moment.
Maybe it wasn’t a Ferrari double in the end; However, first and third places, along with Leclerc getting the fastest lap, were enough to propel the team ahead of Red Bull in the standings – a 25-point lead to be precise.
“The Perfect Farewell”
Sainz admitted to shedding a tear as the Spanish national anthem was played in celebration at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Just below the podium were his parents, Carlos Sainz Sr. and Reyes Vázquez de Castro, as well as his partner, Rebecca Donaldson. His best friends were also at the race weekend, and everyone there made it even better.
“It’s one of the best moments of my career. My mom had never been there at a race win with me, and with her coming here this weekend, I really wanted to win a race in front of her,” Sainz said. “On top of that, the way the whole weekend went, it was just perfect.
“Losing early and then having to fight back with Max made things a little trickier. This probably makes it taste even better because I had to work hard to get it.
Sainz celebrated with his father, family and friends after the race. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
It’s been a long year, not only for Ferrari but also for Sainz. News broke in February that Lewis Hamilton would join the team in 2025, leaving the 30-year-old without a seat despite being competitive among the top teams. It was only at the end of July that the announcement was made that Sainz would be heading to Williams Racing next season, a team trying to rebuild.
Meanwhile, Ferrari started the season competitively before falling into a tricky development period that saw it fall behind McLaren and Mercedes ahead of the summer break. It brought improvements at Monza and Leclerc won, but time will tell if it was a real step forward. That confirmation came in Austin when Ferrari completed a one-two finish, with Leclerc winning his third Grand Prix of the season.
Leclerc said the constructors’ championship was “realistically possible”. Ferrari is 29 points behind McLaren, who leads the standings with 566 points. But as Sainz noted, the team will need to be consistent. Winning the constructors’ championship for the first time since 2008 would be the perfect farewell for Sainz.
“I think it could have been quite easy for me to lose a bit of drive and drive to achieve this, but those three weeks off (after Singapore) served me well,” Sainz said. “I managed to find some of the determination and dynamism that I needed for these last five, six races of the season. And I managed to put myself in a position to improve my driving, my confidence in the car, to put myself in a position, first of all, to win in Austin, although I didn’t manage to do that – Charles did great job there – and I put myself in position to win here and this one, I was just going to make sure it didn’t slip out of my hands.
“It’s not an easy year, but I’m proud of how I’ve managed to hold on and obviously I’m trying to help the team now as much as possible to win these constructors because it would be a goodbye perfect for me.”
(Top photo: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)