Carlos Sainz shares his honest opinion on why he doesn't call any fellow F1 driver his 'friend'

Williams F1 driver Carlos Sainz claimed that he would not call his former McLaren teammate Lando Norris his 'friend', given that they continue to be rivals on the track. Sainz is one of the more popular drivers among the fans, but he also enjoys great camaraderie and respect from the current grid.

The 30-year-old has been racing at the pinnacle of motorsport for a decade and has won four times thus far. Sainz is known for his intense and hardworking style on the track, but off it, he shares good dynamics with Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, and Fernando Alonso.

While appearing on the High Performance podcast, Carlos Sainz spoke about the difficulties of maintaining friendships with fellow drivers. The Spaniard gave the reason why he would not term any drivers as his 'friend', saying:

"A friend for me is someone I would tell secrets and I wouldn't tell you know, I haven't met anyone that I would tell my secrets to. To me, if that's the question, I found really good people, but I haven't made true friends. I think Lando, when we stop being rivals when we are both 40-45, I think we will be very good friends." "Like we do get on very well, but until your rivals, you get on well with him, I get on very well with Charles, the word friend for me is so powerful that I'm not able to use it with someone that is not my best friend, right, those for me are my friends," he added.

Carlos Sainz made his debut on the grid with Max Verstappen as Red Bull juniors racing for Toro Rosso in 2015.

Carlos Sainz sheds light on his dynamic with Max Verstappen

Williams F1 driver Carlos Sainz shared that he got on well with Red Bull driver and four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen despite reports of the two being rivals during their Toro Rosso days.

On the High Performance podcast, he shed light on his dynamic with the Dutchman and said:

“The only thing I could say is that I genuinely get on well with Max. This is what people don’t see from the outside. We had a rivalry in our first year in Formula 1 at Toro Rosso, but it was a relatively healthy rivalry in terms of how we used to go about racing." "If that’s the reason, I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want me next to Max, because I think we would actually be a very strong pairing in Formula 1,” he added.

Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen fought hard against each other, but the latter eventually earned a promotion to Red Bull in the middle of the 2016 season.

Edited by Samya Majumdar