{"id":548942,"date":"2026-03-20T12:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/548942\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T12:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:12:09","slug":"carlos-sainz-says-he-didnt-miss-chance-to-fight-for-formula-1-title-when-he-left-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/548942\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Sainz says he didn&#8217;t miss chance to fight for Formula 1 Title when he left McLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Carlos Sainz drove for McLaren in the 2019 and 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Formula 1<\/a> seasons before leaving for Ferrari, where he remained until the end of 2024, when he was replaced by Lewis Hamilton and went on to join Williams.<\/p>\n<p>While Sainz won races and stood on podiums with Ferrari, McLaren have gone on to become Champions, winning two consecutive Constructors&#8217; Titles in 2024 and 2025, while Lando Norris won the 2025 Drivers&#8217; Crown.<\/p>\n<p>Sainz, on the other hand, finds himself in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandprix247.com\/formula-1-news\/james-vowles-says-williams-need-every-hour-of-formula-1-april-break-to-get-back-on-front-foot\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a dire situation with Williams<\/a> at the start of the 2026 season despite managing two podiums with them last year.<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard was asked whether he regretted leaving McLaren, which in turn may have cost him a chance to fight for a maiden F1 Title.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; he responded. &#8220;And I tell you, why not? Because first of all, in 2021, in Ferrari, I achieved my first podiums of my career.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In 2022, I won my first races, and in 2023, while I was still winning races in Ferrari, McLaren were still almost dead last in the Qualifying of Bahrain. I would have thought back then, \u2018I would be winning races with Ferrari\u2019,&#8221; he explained.<\/p>\n<p>It would&#8217;ve been hard for Sainz to stay with McLaren when Ferrari came calling to replace Sebastian Vettel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it [leaving McLaren] was the right thing to do at the right time,&#8221; Sainz reflected. &#8220;And the only thing I feel is happiness for the team. I feel honestly happy for them. I don&#8217;t feel any regrets.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Lando has been always quick since the day he became an F1 driver,&#8221; he added of his former teammate. &#8220;I think he&#8217;s just become a bit more of an all-rounder through the last six years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s become more championship material. And then he confirmed it in 2025 with a very strong second part of the season,&#8221; the Williams driver concluded. (Source: Beyond the Grid)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Sainz drove for McLaren in the 2019 and 2020 Formula 1 seasons before leaving for Ferrari, where&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,3020,213626,578,28673,576,577,590,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-548942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-carlos-sainz","11":"tag-carlos-sainz-jr","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-f1-news","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-mclaren","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}