F1 News
Did Sainz have a seat at Alpine? 'I don't need a driver for two years'
- Savannah Lenz
Last season, Flavio Briatore returned to Alpine as an advisor. One of his tasks was to get the F1 team, which was struggling, headed back in the right direction. Briatore claims he thought he could have brought Carlos Sainz to the French team.
Before the 2024 season started, Sainz knew that he would not be a Ferrari driver after the season was done. With Lewis Hamilton joining the ranks of the Italian team, Sainz needed to find a new team on the grid. While the Spaniard was linked to several teams, including top ones like Mercedes and Red Bull Racing, he also had other opportunities. One of which was with Alpine. However, Briatore did not want to be a stepping stone and indicated that he wanted drivers who would stay in the long term.
Briatore outlines the situation with Sainz
Briatore has indicated that he would have liked to team up with Sainz, but unfortunately, the cards did not align with the pair. The Alpine advisor wanted Sainz to stay for at least four seasons while Sainz only wanted two. Briatrore was not interested in that.
"He believes in our programme or not. I don't need a driver who costs me a lot of money and who seems to be able to go to another team when the opportunity arises," Briatore told Auto, Motor und Sport. In the end, Alpine promoted Jack Doohan for the 2025 season when Esteban Ocon decided to move to Haas. Doohan will join Pierre Gasly as his teammate.
This article was written in collaboration with Jeroen Immink.
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