Felipe Massa thought Ferrari should’ve signed Ricciardo, but “Carlos Sainz proved me wrong”. Massa thought Ferrari should've signed Ricciardo.

Carlos Sainz is ready to start his second year with Scuderia Ferrari and will be hoping to build on the positive outcome of 2021. The Spanish driver scored four podium finished, with a personal best result in Monaco (P2) and finished the championship in fifth place, behind the unreachable duo of Mercedes and Red Bull. Ahead of the new campaign, the Spaniard targets his first career win, in the hipe that Ferrari’s new F1-75 challenger will allow him to successfully challenge Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and the rest.

An impressive performance from Carlos Sainz in his first year for Scuderia Ferrari, which will most likely earn him a new contract with the Italian side. His pace and consistency during the 2021 Formula 1 championship has amazed many commentators and insiders, including those who know him quite well in the world of Ferrari. This is also the case of former Scuderia Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, who raced for the Maranello team from 2006 to 2013 and came very close to winning the title in 2008, finishing right behind behind Lewis Hamilton in a dramatic final round of the campaign.

Felipe Massa was recently interviewed by Italian daily newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport and the Brazilian had no difficulty in admitting that Carlos Sainz actually performed much better than expected: “I too, like many, thought it would be better to take Daniel Ricciardo. Instead, Carlos proved to be really good: a hard worker, motivated, physically prepared. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc form a very strong couple.” – Felipe Massa explained.

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The Brazilian driver was actually part of Scuderia Ferrari’s last driver line-up that did not include any world champion. This was back in 2007, a season in which Kimi Raikkonen won the Formula 1 title for the Maranello team, with Felipe Massa coming very close to repeating the performance the following season. In some ways, the current situation in Maranello may recall that of 2007. Certainly, today as 15 years ago, no pilot wearing red has a particular desire to be a ‘wingman’. “Will managing them be tough? – Felipe Massa concluded – “one comes to Ferrari to try to win, not for a sympathy operation. Then they both have to respect the team and it seems to me that they have done so up to now.”