Carlos Sainz suggests ‘crazy’ F1 rule change that would see Lance Stroll race for Ferrari

Follow us on Google Discover

Carlos Sainz has experienced a lot over his 12 years in Formula 1 and counting, but he doubts F1 will ever welcome a rule change that could yield the perfect championship.

Red Bull handed Sainz his Formula 1 debut with their sister team Toro Rosso back in 2015. A decade in the paddock has since seen the Spaniard enjoy spells at Renault, McLaren, Ferrari and Williams – he is only the second driver after Alain Prost to ever race for all four of those.

Sainz has seen a number of regulation changes along the way, too, after debuting during the second year of the initial 1.6L V6 turbo-hybrid era. F1 introduced longer and wider cars from 2017 to 2021, the last ground-effect era from 2022 to 2025 and the 2026 turbo-hybrid era.

Will Carlos Sainz ever drive for a top F1 team again? If so, who?

Toto Wolff confirmed that Carlos Sainz was an option before Mercedes signed Kimi Antonelli

Comment

Like or Comment

Have your say Sign-in now for free

Carlos Sainz thinks F1 would be perfect if every driver got to race for every team each year

But Sainz has seen a number of ways that Formula 1 could change the rules to improve the show it produces. Recently, Sainz suggested Monaco should have split qualifying groups for Q1, as mirroring the format that Formula 2 uses would allow F1 to avoid the issue of traffic.

READ MORE: The best moments of Carlos Sainz’s career in Formula 1

Sainz also has a more “crazy” idea to create what he believes would be the ideal F1 drivers’ championship by separating the drivers from the teams. Instead of a driver racing each year with one constructor, even the worst person on the grid would get to race with every squad.

“I have a slightly crazy idea, which I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned in the press,” Sainz told Mundo Deportivo. “No, I don’t know if I can say it.

“I’ve always envisioned a Formula 1 where the manufacturers and the drivers are separate, which will never happen, of course. But I’ve always imagined a category where you have 20 races, and each driver runs two races with each car.

“Then the driver is part of F1, not part of a team – they are an F1 customer, contracted by Formula 1 to drive the cars. So, I’d have my chance to do two races with Williams, two with Mercedes, two with Ferrari.

“All the drivers would have exactly the same chance of winning the world championship. That would constitute the drivers’ world championship, and then the points you score for that manufacturer would be the constructors’ championship.

“That way, you’d completely separate the manufacturers from the drivers. And you’d have a true drivers’ championship and a true constructors’ championship.”

As Sainz acknowledges, it is extremely unlikely that Formula 1 would ever consider a change to the rules that would see every driver race for every team. It is even more unlikely that the teams would even contemplate such a rule change, knowing just how much it could change.

In Sainz’s ideal F1 championship, even the likes of Lance Stroll – who is dead last in the 2026 driver’s standings with zero points after the first seven rounds – would have a chance to race with Mercedes and Ferrari – who have secured 261 and 189 points more than Aston Martin.

At the same time, Andrea Kimi Antonelli – who boasts 156 of Mercedes’ 262 points – would have to leave the W17 he leads the standings in to drive the Audi R26 that has secured two points, the Aston Martin AMR26 that has scored one point and Cadillac’s scoreless MAC-26.