Surprised Sainz had "weeks" to digest Ferrari's Hamilton call

Hamilton's signing, which was announced by the Maranello team earlier this month, has left the Spaniard looking for a drive for next season and beyond.

Ahead of the launch of Ferrari's 2024 challenger on Tuesday, Sainz made it clear that the news was unexpected but conceded he'd had time to digest it, having found out before the world at large.

"I think there was, obviously, a bit of a surprise like everyone in the F1 world with the news," he said. "I think everyone was surprised in a way with what happened.

"From my side, you can obviously understand that I got to know the news a bit earlier than anyone else.

"But it's true that then I had some weeks to reflect, some weeks to prepare and some weeks to also get ready for the car launch, for the first race of the season.

"So it gives you a bit of time to digest it, to take your own conclusions and to focus on the 2024 season there is ahead. But the fact that it was a bit of a surprise to the whole F1 world is no news, and it was obviously also for me."