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Carlos Sainz's four-year Ferrari stint wasn't as successful as he might have hoped in terms of volume of Formula 1 victories or title triumphs. Yet his contribution to the team cannot be underestimated - and in his final season he was closer to team-mate Charles Leclerc than ever.
That's not to say Leclerc was in any danger of being usurped as Ferrari's spearhead or that the team made a mistake in keeping him rather than Sainz to accommodate Lewis Hamilton. The numbers back up that decision, but while Sainz was second-best in his stint alongside Leclerc it wasn’t by much, which is what made them such a potent duo.
Broadly speaking, Leclerc was ahead approximately two-thirds of the time on performance metrics, winning the qualifying head-to-head every season. Leclerc was also ahead on 62% of the racing laps they completed together, which translated to a better finishing position 63% of the time on the occasions when both were classified.
Points scored is one of the less-reliable witnesses in F1 when it comes to judging performance, but it's significant that Sainz closes the gap when it comes to this - contributing 46.7% of the total points scored during their time together.
On average, based on occasions where a fair comparison could be made and converted for an average laptime, Sainz was just 0.037s off Leclerc in qualifying this season. That's the best of his four seasons.
While he was within a tenth in his first season, the switch to ground-effect machinery and the speed with which Leclerc adapted to the demands of the new cars by modifying his braking and corner-entry approach meant that 2022 and 2023 were more difficult for Sainz in qualifying. Even so, he regularly pushed Leclerc.
While Leclerc has the edge on speed more often than not, and has become increasingly formidable in races, Sainz regularly pushed Leclerc. And he outperformed him on merit on plenty of occasions.
However, the most obvious ones were situations where the Ferrari was too front-limited for Leclerc's liking, or in low-downforce, low-grip conditions. As Leclerc has admitted, his on-the-edge qualifying approach can let him down in such conditions.
"It's not one of my strengths, qualifying on very low-grip tracks," said Leclerc after qualifying 0.319s behind Sainz in Mexico, a track where cars run in high-downforce configuration but with low downforce levels thanks to the reduced air density at altitude.
"I tend to push quite a lot in qualifying and in Monza and here [Mexico] I struggle quite a lot with that. You slide a lot because there is very low grip. You've just got to be a little bit less on the limit on those tracks and I struggle a bit more to do that."
Sainz, by comparison, thrives in such conditions. That was obvious early in their partnership when Sainz outqualified Leclerc at the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix at a windy Portimao. This made the partnership work well as Sainz's skillset often filled in effectively for the occasions when Leclerc wasn't at his best. In that regard, it was arguably the best-balanced driver pairing in F1.
Sainz has established a place for himself in Ferrari history. He's not a legend of Maranello, but few are. However, he is now part of a cohort of drivers who have served the cause with distinction for an extended period. That's reflected in having a place in the top 10 of world championship race starters for the Scuderia, admittedly assisted by the unprecedented size of the calendar in modern F1.
The respect for Sainz at Ferrari was made clear by the emotional farewell earlier this month at Fiorano. Both Sainz and his father, Carlos Sr, drove 2022-spec Ferrari F1 cars as part of the sendoff, which was attended by key team members including Leclerc.
"It was the best way to thank all of them for what they did for the team," said Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur.
"With Carlos Jr we had at least two good seasons. It was probably the most emotional part of the season for me, in Melbourne when he won the race, one week after the surgery, and last year when we had the recovery after the summer break that he was the guy who did the pole position in Monza, the win in Singapore.
"His contribution was very important to the improvement of the team. And I know that it was not an easy situation for him when I had to give him the call in February.
"You can imagine it was a tough situation, but he was able to keep the same approach all the year, to be very professional, very dedicated, to fight until the last corner of the last lap of the last race. It was a bit emotional, this one."
That's why after finishing second on his Ferrari farewell in Abu Dhabi, Sainz had every justification in saying "I feel very proud of my time in Ferrari, proud to have contributed these four years to bring this team back to where it belongs, fighting for world championships".
