Carlos Sainz offers radical shake-up to change nature of F1

Carlos Sainz has detailed his idea for a radical shake-up to the nature of grand prix racing, although he conceded it is unlikely to happen. 

The Spanish driver who has driven for Racing Bulls (then Toro Rosso), Alpine (then Renault), McLaren, Ferrari, and Williams since his 2015 debut has proposed an idea whereby drivers move between teams during the season, racing twice for each squad before moving onto another team. 

Back in the early days of the world championship, drivers often moved between teams to get themselves into the best car, with Juan Manuel Fangio achieving the unique feat in 1954 of winning the drivers' championship whilst racing for two teams.

He started the season in a Maserati as the new Mercedes-Benz W196 machines were not ready until round 4 of the season, with Fangio winning both F1 races before this, not counting the 1954 Indy 500, which counted towards the points.

Such arrangements are rare in modern motorsport, although George Russell did drive for Mercedes whilst a Williams driver at the 2020 Sakhir GP due to Lewis Hamilton being diagnosed with COVID-19. 

Detailing his plan, GPDA director Sainz spoke of drivers becoming "clients" hired by F1 instead of being contracted to specific teams. 

"I’ve always envisaged a Formula 1 where the teams and the drivers are separate, but that’s never going to happen, is it?," Sainz pondered to Mundo Deportivo. 

"I’ve always imagined a series where you have 20 races, and each driver races twice in each car. So the driver is part of F1, not part of a team; they’re a client hired by Formula 1 to drive the cars. 

"So I’d have the chance to drive two races for Williams, two for Mercedes, two for Ferrari… all the drivers would have exactly the same chance of winning the World Championship. 

"That would be the Drivers’ World Championship, and the points you score for that team would count towards the Constructors’ Championship. 

"That way, you’d completely separate the teams from the drivers, and so you’d have a proper Drivers’ Championship and a proper Constructors’ Championship."