Ferrari data shows Carlos Sainz was 10 times better than Lewis Hamilton in one vital area

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Carlos Sainz has shown no sign of bitterness after losing his Ferrari seat to Lewis Hamilton. He’s always accepted the unique allure of the seven-time world champion.

But there must be part of him that looks at Hamilton’s performances so far this year and feels hard done by. Up to this point, the Briton has clearly been a downgrade.

That’s not to say that Hamilton won’t improve and reach a higher ceiling than Sainz. But the early evidence hardly breeds optimism.

Aside from Friday and Saturday in China, Hamilton has lost out to Charles Leclerc in every single competitive session. Often, the margin hasn’t been particularly close.

The 40-year-old has only scored 31 points across the first five weekends. Sainz bettered that start in all four of his Ferrari seasons.

The Spaniard initially struggled himself at Williams, but he’s now regaining his form. He followed P8 in Bahrain qualifying with an even better P6 in Jeddah, and converted it to four points in the race too.

Damning comparison between Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz in qualifying

The fortnight break after a breathless run of five races in six weeks offers an opportunity to reflect. The sample size is now large enough for an initial comparison between Hamilton and his Ferrari predecessor.

Last season, Leclerc qualified ahead of Sainz in 14 of the 23 weekends where both participated. But the gap between the two was, on average, just 0.03%.

So while the Monegasque was the faster driver over one lap, Sainz was extremely close and more than capable of beating him. Looking at this year, Leclerc is already off to a 4-1 lead over Hamilton on a Saturday.

And the intra-team gap is more than 10 times larger than it was last year at 0.321% (via F1 Pace). This is the fourth-biggest disparity among full-time partnerships.

Jack Doohan (0.51%), Kimi Antonelli (0.471%) and Esteban Ocon (0.413%) are all further behind their teammates, but damningly, two of those drivers are rookies. Hamilton seems to have accepted that qualifying is a weakness at this stage of his career, but surely even he didn’t expect it to be this stark.

Ferrari outcast Carlos Sainz warned against ‘poison’ career move

Some Red Bull staff wanted Sainz last year, and given the chaos that’s unfolded at Milton Keynes, they may be ruing their failure to sign him.

Alex Albon was the lead Williams driver at first, but Sainz has pulled the qualifying battle back to 3-2 and he finished ahead for the first time in Saudi Arabia.

It hasn’t escaped the attention of F1 fans that he’s also outpaced Hamilton in the last two Saturday sessions. Williams have halted 2025 car development to focus on next year’s rule changes, and that may be all that stops Sainz mounting a push for a top-10 finish in the drivers’.

Juan Pablo Montoya has warned Sainz to reject Red Bull if they approach him once again. Neither Max Verstappen nor Yuki Tsunoda are guaranteed to stay for 2026 (albeit for different reasons), but Montoya sees the seat as ‘poison ivy’.