Everything Changed- Carlos Sainz

1. You only miss the sun when it starts to snow

For Carlos Sainz, signing as a Ferrari driver had meant everything. All he'd ever wanted was to drive that scarlet red car, to have the chance to be fighting for wins every race weekend. It was the pinnacle of his career.... And then it had been snatched out from underneath him in the blink of an eye.

He'd been in the process of negotiating a new contract with Ferrari, his previous one coming to its agreed end point. It had been going well, he was happy with the team, they were happy with him he'd thought. He'd been getting solid results each weekend, even a couple of wins. Him and Charles worked well together. As they'd started hashing out the final few details it had never occurred to him that it wasn't a done deal.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Fred had called  him up and told him that the team were replacing him with Lewis Hamilton for 2025.

It was like someone and kicked his legs out from underneath him as he stood there on the phone. The speech Fred was giving him about how it was nothing Carlos had done sounded eerily similar to the one Carlos had given when he'd broken up with his girlfriend six months prior to focus on his career, but he couldn't dwell on that. All he could think about was what on earth he was going to do now.

There were only so many seats on the grid to begin with, and even less that were actually in competitive cars. Then, factoring in the amount of drivers who already had contracts beyond 2025, it limited his options even more.

He could kind of understand what Fred was saying, and it wasn't like they were just replacing him with anyone. After all, Ferrari were not going to turn down a seven time world champion who wanted to drive for them, but it had come so incredibly out of the blue that Carlos just hadn't seen it coming.

Suddenly the remainder of the 2024 season was one race closer to the end. Possibly even one race closer to being without a seat full stop, an idea he really didn't want to consider... but it was a very real concern.

He'd quietly thanked Fred for letting him know before the news broke, saying that he understood even if he didn't really. Because he couldn't understand how his own contract negotiations had got so far without there being so much as a mention of someone else in contention for the seats. Then he'd hung up the call and sat there, staring blankly at the wall ahead of him as he tried to work out what to do.

He didn't have it in him to call his family and tell them, not yet at least. They were going to have a million and one questions about what this meant for his career, and he could answer any of them because he just didn't know. He didn't even want to think about it.

He'd given up so much to be a Ferrari driver, sacrificed so many friends, missed out on so much with his family. He'd even sacrificed his relationship, unable to keep up with the demands of the team and have the time to be with someone.

Something had to give, and his relationship had been the one to suffer unfortunately. He was starting to realise maybe he'd picked the wrong side after all, because it seemed Ferrari were now going to discard him without a second thought.

He'd sat there for a while, longer than he'd like to admit, just staring at the wall as he replayed the conversation with Fred over and over in his head.

His phone pinged and he glanced over to see a message from Lewis, Fred had clearly told him he'd broken the news to Carlos that he was taking his seat. He read it, deciding he'd reply later. The message was kind, apologetic even, but it still wasn't a conversation that he wanted to be having. There was nothing anyone could say that was going to make him feel any better.

He got up in the end and dragged himself out after putting on enough layers to endure the cold. Lando had laughed at him when he said he was going up to Scotland for a weekend, hoping to play some golf, pointing out that it was January and the weather was going to be terrible.