nature of grand prix racing, although he conceded it is unlikely to
happen. The Spanish driver who has driven for Racing Bulls (then
Toro Rosso), Alpine (then Renault), McLaren, Ferrari, and Williams
since his 2015 debut has proposed an idea whereby drivers move
between teams during the season, racing twice for each squad before
moving onto another team. Back in the early days of the world
championship, drivers often moved between teams to get themselves
into the best car, with Juan Manuel Fangio achieving the unique
feat in 1954 of winning the drivers’ championship whilst racing for
two teams. He started the season in a Maserati as the new
Mercedes-Benz W196 machines were not ready until round 4 of the
season, with Fangio winning both F1 races before this, not counting
the 1954 Indy 500, which counted towards the points. Such
arrangements are rare in modern motorsport, although George Russell
did drive for Mercedes whilst a Williams driver at the 2020 Sakhir
GP due to Lewis Hamilton being diagnosed with COVID-19. Detailing
his plan, GPDA director Sainz spoke of drivers becoming “clients”
hired by F1 instead of being contracted to specific teams. “I’ve
always envisaged a Formula 1 where the teams and the drivers are
separate, but that’s never going to happen, is it?,” Sainz pondered
to Mundo Deportivo. “I’ve always imagined a series where you have
20 races, and each driver races twice in each car. So the driver is
part of F1, not part of a team; they’re a client hired by Formula 1
to drive the cars. “So I’d have the chance to drive two races for
Williams, two for Mercedes, two for Ferrari… all the drivers would
have exactly the same chance of winning the World Championship.
“That would be the Drivers’ World Championship, and the points you
score for that team would count towards the Constructors’
Championship. “That way, you’d completely separate the teams from
the drivers, and so you’d have a proper Drivers’ Championship and a
proper Constructors’ Championship.”