Trevor Carlin’s team competes in a wide variety of racing series including F2 and F3 (Photo: James Gasperotti)
The man who helped get Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda to Formula One, has shared his thoughts on where the future lies for the trio.
Trevor Carlin is the founder and team manager of Rodin Carlin who compete in a wide variety of motorsport series around the globe.
They are most famous for their exploits in Formula 2 and Formula 3, with countless drivers coming through their ranks before making it to F1 including four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.
Six racers on the 2023 grid drove for Carlin during their junior career: Sainz, Tsunoda, George Russell, Lando Norris, Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant.
Speaking exclusively to Metro Sport, Carlin shared his thoughts on some of his former proteges:
Carlin has helped many drivers reach the pinnacle of F1 including Lando Norris and George Russell (Photo: Jakob Ebrey)
‘Terribly underrated’ Carlos Sainz is better than Charles Leclerc
Ask people who Ferrari’s next champion will be and most will say Charles Leclerc. After all, the Monegasque emerged as the early frontrunner for the title last year and many consider him the quickest driver on the grid over one lap.
His teammate Sainz on the other hand never seems to get as much admiration despite currently being ahead in the standings. Carlin reckons the one-time race winner is the superior driver and has backed him to challenge for the title if given the right car.
‘No one can take away that Charles is an incredible qualifier of a Formula One car and that was the case in F2 back in the day. He could find grip that wasn’t there and take advantage of it. It gives you the headline result when you beat your teammate.
‘But Carlos is steady, he’s always there. He’s had a couple incidents recently but I’d have to say the car isn’t the easiest thing to drive on the limit and Carlos has been on the wrong end of some of the issues on the car.
‘But at the end of the day, he still has more points in the championship than Charles. So maybe the headline qualifying pace hasn’t been there for Carlos but if anyone’s going to trouble the top three I think it’s more likely to be Carlos than Charles.
‘He’s terribly underrated. In the wet with a good car underneath him he’s staggeringly fast. I think it was 2012, I had a GP2 test in Abu Dhabi and I needed someone on the car. I phoned Carlos Sainz Sr. and said would you mind if Carlos came down and did a couple of days testing.
‘He said, “Yes, but why Carlos?”, and I said I needed someone who can go fast. I got Carlos down, he had never driven the car before and he instantly went P1. That validated my decision to put Carlos in and showed just how fast of a driver he was. Give him the right product and he’ll deliver.’
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz is yet to finish on the podium in 2023 (Photo: Getty)
Daniel Ricciardo shouldn’t return unless he can get a Red Bull seat
One of the sport’s finest drivers over the past decade, Ricciardo endured a steep decline following an ill-fated move to McLaren and he is now spending 2023 on the sidelines as a test and reserve driver for Red Bull.
Rumour has it he could return to the grid next year with AlphaTauri with an eye on taking Sergio Perez’s Red Bull seat in 2025, but Carlin believes that unless getting that drive with the champions is a realistic prospect, the Aussie would be better off walking away from F1 for good.
‘We know Daniel ever so well, he’s a great friend of the Carlin team. He’s done an incredible job, he’s won lots of grand prix, he’s had a fantastic life based around motor racing but I think he has other things he’d like to do in life.
‘I don’t think he should come back as a race driver. Going to 24 races a season is a big commitment and there’s no point going just to do them. He’s a great ambassador for Red Bull right now.
‘I haven’t spoken to him about it so if he reads this he’ll probably phone me up to have a shout at me! I’m a believer of people being happy in their lives and from the outside at least Daniel looks really happy at the moment.
‘He looked very unhappy when he was running at the back in F1 and with the best will in the world driving an AlphaTauri is going to be a battle to be P9 or P10, so why would you put yourself through that?
‘I don’t think he should do it, but if it gives him the chance to get back into Red Bull it’s a different conversation. I think he’d be ready for that and up for the challenge but AlphaTauri would be wrong for him in my personal opinion.’
Daniel Ricciardo won seven races with Red Bull from 2014 to 2018 (Photo: Getty)
‘Entertaining’ Yuki Tsunoda would ‘surprise a few people’ at Red Bull
Another name in the running to join Red Bull is Tsunoda who has impressed so far this year, dragging a poor AlphaTauri car into points contention on a regular basis.
The Japanese racer has gained a reputation for a being a little haphazard on track, but as Carlin points out his meteoric rise through the junior ranks shows just how talented he is and predicts a big future for the 23-year-old.
‘We absolutely adore Yuki, we had a year racing with him and it was the most fun time ever. He’s such a character, he’s so committed and he got everything out of the car. He made a few stupid mistakes in his rookie year in F2 which in hindsight actually cost him the championship to [Mick] Schumacher.
‘We thought he’d be with us on a two-year deal. The jump from one year in F2 to F1 is tough. He was trying to prove himself and he had a lot of incidents in year one and slightly less incidents in year two.
‘Could you imagine if we had to do this job in Tokyo tomorrow, not knowing the language? We’d really struggle. So flip that on its head, Yuki has come to a different culture, a different place, different language, different food, the whole shebang.
‘It is very difficult and that’s why many Japanese drivers don’t make it. They may be faster but they struggle to make the transition to Europe because it is a massive culture shock. So fair play to him he’s doing well. Its a big challenge, he had a steep learning curve.
‘Unfortunately, his improvement in pace has coincided with the deterioration of the speed of AlphaTauri so he’s got better as the car’s got worse. An awful lot of people want that Red Bull seat but who would want to be Max Verstappen’s teammate?
‘Yuki is the kind of guy that would relish the opportunity and he’d be fully committed. God knows what would happen but he’d be entertaining, go flat out and he might surprise a few people. I’d love to see Yuki do it.’
Yuki Tsunoda has put in some eye-catching performances in 2023 (Photo: Getty)
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Trevor Carlin helped the duo reach F1.
