Carlos Sainz says Ferrari's upturn in form is "bittersweet" for him, because he feels the squad is gearing up to be firmly in the world title hunt next year when he's no longer there.
Ferrari has overcome a car development setback in the middle part of the 2024 season to regain competitiveness in recent races, especially on circuits with relatively few high-speed corners.
Charles Leclerc won Monza's Italian Grand Prix in September and was fighting for victory in Baku, while a botched qualifying session prevented both he and Sainz from competing up front in Singapore. But the pair struck back by taking a 1-2 victory last week in Austin, led by Leclerc, which is bringing Ferrari back in championship contention.
Ferrari's resurgence is the culmination of a long process, with the team unable to sustain its development rate after a strong start to the 2022 season. In 2023 Fred Vasseur came in as a team boss to drive the squad forward in every department as he aimed to improve its culture and weed out operational mistakes, which is paying dividends this year with much improve race pace.
Sainz has been there for most of the build-up, joining Maranello from McLaren for 2021, but he will be departing for Williams next year after Vasseur snapped up Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes at the start of the year.
So, while the Spaniard was buoyed by Ferrari's upturn in performance as he took his sixth pole of his career with the team, he admitted his Mexico pole was tinged with sadness as he won't be able to complete his journey with the resurgent Scuderia in 2025.
"It's very sweet, given how good the car is, how well I'm driving recently, obviously optimistic going into the last five races," he said after beating 2024's title protagonists Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, as well as Leclerc, in qualifying.
"At the same time, it's bittersweet because it gives me a feeling Ferrari might be in the fight for the world championship next year and I will not be there to use it.
"I feel like I've been quite a big part of this team during the last four years trying to prepare the team to fight for that championship next year. And the fact that I'm driving well, being fast with the car and I'm leaving in five races is definitely leaves me a bit… I don't know how to say it, but not with a very good feeling.
"But it is what it is. I'm going to try and win more races, stand on the podium for as long as I can during these five races and enjoy that. And then we will think about next year."
Ferrari may yet win the constructors' title this year, bringing the gap with McLaren down to 48 points, and following just eight points behind Red Bull.
Sainz felt Ferrari's high-speed cornering weakness compared to McLaren, which is still the dominant car in fast corners, will come to bite Ferrari in Qatar, but he expects other circuits to be stronger for the Scuderia.
"We are still lacking in high speed corners, especially in qualifying mode, which makes me feel like Qatar will still be a difficult race for us," the 30-year-old explained.
"But at all the other circuits hopefully we'll be in the mix, which means you give yourself a chance at winning at almost every track except for Qatar that I think is not a Ferrari track at all."
