Former F1 driver Hans-Joachim Stuck asserted he didn’t understand why Scuderia Ferrari decided to replace Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton.

In multiple statements issued shortly after the end of the 2023 season, the Maranello team seemed quite certain they wanted to continue working with their current duo.

That was also one of the reasons why the announcement that Lewis Hamilton was going to Ferrari to replace Carlos Sainz was such a surprise.

On the one hand, even Sainz himself said he can understand that when a seven-time World Champion comes knocking on the door, it is tough to say no.

On the other hand, many fans are not too convinced Ferrari made the right decision after the first three races of the 2024 season.

The seven-time World Champion is currently being outperformed by his younger teammate, George Russell. In a head-to-head battle, the 25-year-old loses 0-3 in qualifying sessions and 0-2 in race results.

Sainz, on the other hand, has shown incredible performance and outscored his teammate. In Bahrain, he achieved P3; in Saudi Arabia, he couldn’t race because of surgery; and in Australia, he won.

If Carlos Sainz didn’t suffer from appendicitis and could attend the season’s second race, he would likely be leading the Championship at this stage. Hans-Joachim Stuck told Eurosport:

“I always wondered why Ferrari would dismiss a driver like Carlos Sainz. After the race you could see that he was still very badly affected by his appendectomy.”

“So you have to rate his win even higher because he did a great job. And that was once again confirmation of the doubts about his dismissal.”

The job that Hamilton and Sainz are now doing is raising questions among fans as to whether Ferrari made the right call to replace the Spanish driver. Stuck believes the team principal of Scuderia will regret this decision.

“Frederic Vasseur will be angry that he made the decision. I never understood the switch from Sainz to Hamilton.”