Carlos Sainz details Lewis Hamilton change: “Used to be one of my idols…”

Carlos Sainz has detailed how he gone from idolising Lewis Hamilton to viewing him solely as a competitor.

The Williams driver spoke warmly about seven-time world champion Hamilton, who took his seat at Ferrari for the 2025 season after completing a blockbuster switch from Mercedes over the winter. 

That left Sainz without a drive, but after receiving several offers for 2025, the Spaniard joined Williams.

Sainz was still karting and watching F1 when Hamilton won his first world title with McLaren in 2008. Fast forward 17 years and Sainz is now going head-to-head with the 40-year-old Briton.

Sainz admitted he can no longer view Hamilton as an idol due to the competitive nature of F1.

“For me, honestly, it’s because he’s my competitor, but if I were not in F1, he would be one of my idols,” Sainz told Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James.

“When I was 10 years old is when he arrived in Formula 1 and he became world champion in 2008. I was 12 years old, and that’s when I started watching Formula 1, when he was racing Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa and everyone.

“He used to be one of my idols and one of the people that I looked up to, but now he’s one of my competitors, 10, 15 years later.”

Are Ferrari regretting their driver decision?

Sainz beat Hamilton to a first podium of the 2025 season with an outstanding drive to third place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Hamilton could only finish eighth, one place ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc, on another underwhelming weekend for Ferrari as Sainz celebrated his milestone podium with Williams.

But Sainz, a four-time grand prix winner with Ferrari, refused to get drawn into talk of comparisons with Hamilton.

“What everyone else does is not my business, to be honest,” Sainz insisted. 

“What I care about is that the first opportunity that I had to score a podium with Williams, and the first opportunity Williams had to score a podium, we took it, we scored it, and there it is.”

Hamilton is enduring a difficult debut season with Ferrari and is yet to achieve a podium in his first 17 grands prix.

Other than winning the Chinese sprint race, Hamilton’s best result for Ferrari has been fourth place which he took at Imola, the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.

Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes that some of the Ferrari team regret replacing Sainz with Hamilton.

“I think some people in the team do,” Steiner told The Red Flags Podcast. “I think obviously management cannot feel regret because you would be admitting that you did something wrong, and you cannot do that, because I’m sure that some of the guys there are feeling regret, because Ferrari finished eighth and ninth in Baku.

“Carlos Sainz, now with Williams, finished third, so it’s like, I guess the guy feeling best about it is Carlos Sainz.”

Steiner went on to add: “I mean, Carlos was doing a good job. They wouldn’t have all the interference from outside of Lewis not performing, so the team could focus on going racing, making things better, instead of always trying to find out why Lewis doesn’t like the car.

“They had a known quantity with Carlos; he could deliver, and Lewis obviously, I mean, I respect Lewis, but in the moment, for the unrest he brings into the team and around the team, is it a worthwhile investment? Maybe not.

“Also, the investment money-wise, I’m pretty sure it’s a lot higher with Lewis than with Carlos.”