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UCF inquires about USC coach Lincoln Riley: Sources

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UCF inquires about USC coach Lincoln Riley: Sources

By Bruce Feldman, Antonio Morales and Ralph Russo

UCF has inquired about the availability of USC coach Lincoln Riley as it searches for a replacement for Gus Malzahn, three people who have been privy to those conversations told The Athletic on Wednesday.

There has been no indication Riley is interested in making the move, the people said. He is three seasons into a reported 10-year contract that pays him about $10 million per year.

The people spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity because all the discussions were private and UCF was not publicly revealing details of its coaching search.

Riley’s contract is not publicly available because USC is a private school, but extracting him from Southern California — if he wanted to leave — would likely cost tens of millions of dollars for either the Trojans or the school looking to hire him away.

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Representatives from UCF reached out to Riley’s representatives last weekend to inquire about his interest in making a move across the country, one source said. Any discussions about adjusting the terms of Riley’s contract would be between him and USC, sources said.

The first source added that UCF has not received any word from Riley’s camp that he is interested in leaving USC, and the school is still looking at multiple candidates to fill its head coaching vacancy.

Firing Riley, whose win total with the Trojans has decreased in each of his three seasons, would cost USC about $90 million, according to one of the sources. If Riley were to leave for another school, he would owe USC nothing. But UCF is not in position to replicate the deal Riley has at USC. Malzahn made $4 million in 2024 at UCF.

Two sources said even if Riley had an interest in making the move, it would require some payout of his current deal with USC to make up for what he would be giving up in the transition — like a professional sports trade where one team pays a chunk of a player’s remaining salary on a large contract and the receiving team picks up the rest.

Riley was hired at USC by former athletic director Mike Bohn, who resigned amid controversy in the spring of 2023. University president Carol Folt oversaw the hire as well and will retire this summer, which means two of the main parties involved in bringing Riley to USC will be gone.

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Jen Cohen, the former Washington athletic director, was hired in August 2023 to lead the athletic department. She inherited Riley and his contract.

She’s in the unenviable position of having an underperforming football program but a coach who is too expensive to move on from. In the spring, Cohen navigated a delicate situation with men’s basketball coach Andy Enfield, whose tenure had run its course but his track record was too good to justify a firing. He eventually took the SMU job, and Cohen hired Eric Musselman from Arkansas to replace him.

Even with a suitor for Riley, getting out from under his deal looks more difficult.

Malzahn left UCF after four seasons as head coach to become offensive coordinator at Florida State. The Knights have gone 10-15 overall and 5-13 in league play in their first two seasons in the Big 12 after making the move from the American Athletic Conference. UCF received only a partial share of Big 12 revenue last year, about $18 million, and is scheduled to receive about $19 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

The number jumps to a full share in 2025-26, which should be about double those figures.

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Riley is 25-14 at USC since being lured to Los Angeles from Oklahoma after the 2021 regular season. It was a seismic move for the Trojans, swiping away a coach who had a 55-10 record in Norman and two Heisman Trophy winners in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray.

The Trojans went 11-3 in Riley’s first season with another Heisman winner in Caleb Williams, the star quarterback who followed the coach from Oklahoma to USC. But the results have been trending in the wrong direction since.

USC went 8-5 in 2023, its final season in the Pac-12, and wrapped up its first regular season in the Big Ten with a 6-6 overall record (4-5 in league play).

After the 2023 season, Riley told The Athletic that he “didn’t come here (USC) for some short-term thing and as long as SC continues to give us the support and the things we need to continue to build this, this was not a two-year rebuild.”

Recruiting hasn’t lived up to the high expectations that came with Riley’s hire. USC continues to regress on the field each season, and the program doesn’t appear to have much direction moving forward, making the outlook for Riley look hazy at best.

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(Photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)

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Ilia Malinin, U.S. figure skating’s new star, caps a perfect year and eyes Olympic glory

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Ilia Malinin, U.S. figure skating’s new star, caps a perfect year and eyes Olympic glory

At the end of his free skate Saturday, Ilia Malinin sprawled out on the ice, eyes closed, soaking it all in. The man known as the “Quad God” had just unleashed a series of quadruple jumps — including the quad axel, a jump that no one else has ever landed — and even a backflip in his typical spectacular style.

The routine had included a fall and several other miscues, but it didn’t matter. Malinin, the rising American who turned 20 on Monday, easily beat Japanese rival Yuma Kagiyama to win the men’s singles competition in the Grand Prix Final, finish an undefeated 2024 and further cement his status as a superstar in the making.

Perhaps the only thing not going Malinin’s way is that the Olympics are in 14 months instead of two.

Since the 2022 Beijing Games, Malinin has become the new force in men’s figure skating, his win Saturday completing a perfect calendar year that included the World Championship gold medal and has made him the sport’s clear No. 1, just over a year before the 2026 Olympics begin in Milan.

Malinin started with a dazzling short program Friday, opening up a near-12-point lead over Kagiyama, the silver medalist at worlds behind Malinin. In Saturday’s free skate, Malinin unleashed a barrage of quads — the axel, lutz, salchow, toe loop, loop and flip — and a crowd-pleasing backflip near the end to claim another major title. He finished with a combined score of 292.12, besting Kagiyama’s 281.78. Japan’s Shun Sato took third with a 270.82.

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“I had this idea and this goal that I wanted to achieve here, and I was able to blow it out of the park,” Malinin said in the arena after the win.

The Grand Prix Final is the culmination of figure skating’s annual Grand Prix series, inviting only the top six skaters or pairs in each discipline. It’s among the most prestigious worldwide titles in the sport, after the Olympics and the World Championships.

The win capped a stellar weekend in Grenoble, France, for the U.S. with three titles. Earlier Saturday, Amber Glenn won the women’s competition, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates — the two-time defending world champions — won the ice dance for the second straight year. The Americans also took a gold and two silvers in the junior competition.

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Malinin was born and raised in Virginia. His parents, Roman Skorniakov and Tatiana Malinina, are former Olympic figure skaters with Russian and Uzbekistani heritage. They relocated to the U.S. and live in Vienna, Va., where Malinin learned to skate at the facility where his parents coach. He attends George Mason University.

Malinin might already be a household name for casual Olympics fans if not for a decision in 2022 that kept him off the U.S. team in Beijing.


American Ilia Malinin, who turned 20 on Monday, has ascended to the top of men’s figure skating and enters 2025 as the sport’s clear No. 1. (Laurent Cipriani / AP)

At the U.S. Championships that year, one month before the Olympics, Malinin — who had just turned 18 — finished a surprising second place behind Nathan Chen, making a strong case to be named to the team. But the selection committee — not required to choose based on the results alone — instead opted for experience and picked former Olympians Vincent Zhou and Jason Brown — the third- and fourth-place finishers at nationals — to join Chen in Beijing and made Malinin the first alternate.

It worked out for the U.S. — it won team gold after Russian skater Kamila Valieva was disqualified and her score subtracted — but it meant Malinin would have to wait for his Olympic debut.

In the time since, he has skyrocketed to the top of the sport. After the Olympics, the Americans sent Malinin to the 2022 World Championships, where he finished ninth. Then he competed in the World Junior Championships and won gold for his first major victory.

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From there, he competed on the senior circuit full time. The 2022-23 season brought gold at the U.S. Championships and bronze at worlds and the Grand Prix Final, as well as his first successful quad axel. Now, in 2024, he’s been unbeatable — World Championships, Grand Prix Final, U.S. Championships — gold in all.

Before his arrow-shot up the rankings, Malinin gained recognition for an unprecedented move. Until Sept. 15, 2022, no figure skater had landed a fully rotated quadruple axel — four full spins in the air off the axel jump, which is considered the hardest in the sport and starts forward-facing, necessitating an extra half rotation to complete.

That changed when Malinin unleashed it at an event in Lake Placid, N.Y.

He’s repeated the feat several times since and goes by the nickname “Quadg0d” on Instagram in honor of the accomplishment. He’s said in interviews he’s considering trying a quintuple version of the jump.

It’s his signature move but far from the extent of his skill. Malinin’s athletic routines have produced massive scores — including a world-record free skate at this year’s World Championships. He wasted no time breaking out a backflip in competition in October after a ban on the move — in place since 1977 — was lifted earlier this year.

Malinin finished 2024 with seven wins in seven events. He hasn’t finished out of the top three in any event since that 2022 World Championships he competed in after missing out on Beijing. And the next major event is on his home turf — the 2025 worlds are in Boston from March 23 to 30.

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There’s still another year of competition until the Olympics begin in Milan in February 2026, time for another top contender like Kagiyama or France’s Adam Siao Him Fa — the bronze medalist at last year’s worlds who missed this Grand Prix Final with an injury — to chase Malinin down. But the American enters 2025 as the clear No. 1 in the sport.


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(Photo: Jurij Kodrun / International Skating Union via Getty Images)

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Giants’ record-setting Willy Adames deal shows Buster Posey means business

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Giants’ record-setting Willy Adames deal shows Buster Posey means business

Buster Posey held the San Francisco Giants’ record for the largest contract in franchise history. In Posey’s first major move as the club’s president of baseball operations, he did not hesitate to smash it.

The Giants agreed to terms with free-agent shortstop Willy Adames on a seven-year, $182 million contract on Saturday, reshaping the left side of their infield for the remainder of the decade and signaling their resolve to remain aggressive as they seek to reestablish their relevance in the National League West. The agreement with Adames is pending a physical — more than a trifling detail given the medical issues that scuttled Carlos Correa’s $350 million contract following the 2022 season — and its guaranteed money would soar past Posey’s own nine-year, $167 million contract that he signed after winning the NL MVP Award in 2012.

With Adames and third baseman Matt Chapman, who signed a six-year, $150 million extension in September, the Giants have committed a third of a billion dollars to establish a solid offensive and defensive presence on the left side of their infield. Viewed together, those investments are not so different from the megadeals that the Texas Rangers gave to shortstop Corey Seager and second baseman Marcus Semien after the 2021 season — a $500 million bet that paid off when the Rangers won the first World Series title in franchise history two years later.

Adames, 29, earned 4.8 fWAR last season when he finished fourth in the majors with 112 RBIs, set career highs in home runs (32) and stolen bases (21), and led the Milwaukee Brewers to the NL Central title. Likely just as significant to Posey and the Giants, Adames was a respected leader in Milwaukee, praised for his durability and his ability to produce in the clutch. He was among the league’s best defenders at shortstop in 2023, and although several of his advanced metrics declined this past season, there’s little doubt that he represents an upgrade with the glove over the Giants’ internal options at the position.

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the Giants’ stunning agreement, which came on the eve of baseball’s Winter Meetings in Dallas, is how it reflects on Posey, who had been something of a cipher in his brief tenure as a first-time baseball executive, filling out front-office positions and adding advisory voices but otherwise providing few specifics on how aggressive he would be at improving a team that finished 80-82 in 2024 while missing the postseason for the seventh time in eight seasons.

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But Posey had been clear on one point: He identified acquiring a shortstop as the club’s top priority. And the Giants just agreed to sign the top shortstop on the free-agent market.


As a player, Buster Posey was a problem solver. (G Fiume / Getty Images)

Posey had a talent for cutting through the noise during his career behind the plate, tackling problems head-on, carving a direct path and avoiding the trap of overthinking. If his first major move as the Giants’ chief baseball architect is any indication, he will lean on those same attributes and impulses while seeking to close the sizable gap between his team and the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Identify problem. Fix problem.

Posey wasn’t sufficiently deterred by the fact that signing Adames, who had been extended a qualifying offer by the Brewers, will force the Giants to sacrifice their second- and fifth-round picks along with $1 million in international bonus money from their 2026 pool. Those are no small considerations for a franchise that also punted its second- and third-round picks in this past draft after signing Chapman and left-hander Blake Snell the previous offseason. The Giants wouldn’t have lost draft picks if they had pivoted from Adames to shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, a favorite of Giants manager Bob Melvin from their time together in San Diego but who will be continuing to rehab from offseason shoulder surgery on Opening Day.

But Adames was clearly the best shortstop on the market. And Posey kept it as simple as that.

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“Ultimately, it’s a boring answer, but you just want complete baseball players,” Posey said at the GM Meetings in November. “You want guys who can do some of everything.”

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Interestingly, Posey’s first major free-agent signing is a fellow CAA client. The Giants recently announced the hiring of Jeff Berry, Posey’s former agent and the former head of CAA’s baseball division, as a special advisor.

ESPN was the first to report the agreement. The Giants aren’t expected to announce it until late Sunday or Monday.

The addition of Adames would push Tyler Fitzgerald into a competition at second base with Casey Schmitt, Brett Wisely and potentially Marco Luciano if the organization’s former top prospect isn’t traded or moved to the outfield.

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The biggest question becomes how aggressive the Giants will be to address their second major need: a pitching presence for a rotation that threw the fewest innings in the National League despite the fact that their opening-day ace, Logan Webb, threw the most on an individual basis. Several reports have linked the Giants to former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes, a Bakersfield-area native who competed at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga and would give the Giants one of the best 1-2 punches in the league.

Before last season with the Baltimore Orioles, Burnes had spent his entire major-league career with the Brewers so the addition of Adames might be a selling point in any Giants’ attempt at a pursuit. Both players are very well known to Zack Minasian, the Giants’ newly elevated GM, who had been the scouting director in Milwaukee during his 14 seasons with the organization. Minasian had been one of the strongest voices to champion Burnes when the right-hander showed promise in the minor leagues, advising then-Brewers GM Doug Melvin to make the former fourth-round pick practically untouchable in trade discussions.

On a cash basis, the Giants spent $206 million on player salaries last season, exceeded the luxury tax threshold ($237 million) for the first time since 2018 and sustained operating losses that caused some discomfort among members of the ownership group. Their placeholder budget numbers for 2025 had called for a reduction in player payroll, which might still be achieved even if the club can win the bidding for Burnes — a market that is expected to exceed $200 million — as well as Adames.

Adding Adames’ $26 million average annual value would put the Giants’ estimated cash-basis payroll at roughly $170 million. If the Giants seek to trim in other areas, they could trade one or more of their arbitration-eligible players (LaMonte Wade Jr. and Camilo Doval among them). Or they could sign one of several second-tier starting pitchers who won’t come cheap — witness Luis Severino’s three-year, $67 million contract with the A’s — but would require a fraction of what it would take to land Burnes, who notably left CAA for the Boras Corporation in 2023 and whose potential signing also would cost the Giants their third- and sixth-round draft picks.

Or Posey could do what he demonstrated so often over his playing career: cut through the noise, go after the best player, and convince ownership to spend.

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“I know we’ll be very diligent in our decision-making,” Posey said last month. “But something I’ve tried to inject with the group is for us not to be hamstrung from that potential fear of failure. It’s knowing that, ‘Hey, sometimes we’re going to have to risk media members saying this was a bad decision or a bad move.’ But if we feel convicted in it, then you have to be OK with it.”

(Top photo of Adames: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)

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The end of Ferrari’s ‘C²’: Leclerc and Sainz’s genuine F1 partnership faces its sunset in Abu Dhabi

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The end of Ferrari’s ‘C²’: Leclerc and Sainz’s genuine F1 partnership faces its sunset in Abu Dhabi

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz sat in the back of a car chatting en route to Bahrain International Circuit.

A buzz was in the air as Formula One prepared for the first race weekend of the 2024 season, fresh off of a long winter, the teams’ season launches and a silly season signing changing the drivers’ market. News broke on Feb. 1 that Lewis Hamilton would leave Mercedes and switch to Ferrari for the 2025 season, costing Sainz his seat. It wasn’t a matter of the Spaniard not performing — how do you say no to a seven-time world champion?

On the way to the Bahrain track, Leclerc stared down the camera with a slight smile. “Tell me, Carlos,” he said to his teammate before a stuffed chili pepper appeared in the frame. A fan had given it to Sainz, a nod towards one of his nicknames. Sainz said, “I want to give this to you, from my fan to me, for you so you remember me for the rest of your life.”

Leclerc pressed the chili against his face, saying, “A chiliiiiii.” Sainz added, “For our post-teammate era.” Leclerc stopped spinning the chili, his smile fading as he looked at his teammate.

“Come on, we’re only starting the season,” he responded with a slight laugh. Sainz said, “Getting emotional already.”

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Together, Leclerc and Sainz formed a formidable driver duo that helped Ferrari contend for its first constructors’ championship since 2008, sitting 21 points behind first-place McLaren. The 2024 season has been the strongest of their respective F1 careers, Leclerc securing three wins (including an emotional home win at Monaco and a team home win at the Italian GP) and 12 podium finishes. Sainz brought home two victories (one just 16 days after having surgery) and eight podiums.

Their working relationship is strong, though tensions have flared, like after the Las Vegas Grand Prix. But on the personal side, the two have formed a beloved duo known by fans as C². Ferrari has put them through numerous viral challenges over the years, and the pair have become memes on social media. Their personalities have shone, and while they both will still be in the paddock in 2025 with Sainz at Williams, it’s the end of a special driver pairing.

“I’m sure that even though he won’t be in red next year, we’ll most likely travel together on the races to spend some time together,” Leclerc said in Abu Dhabi, “because our relationship is really good.”

It all began four years ago.

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Ferrari announced in May 2020 that Sainz would replace four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. The news came after Daniel Ricciardo was confirmed as the Spaniard’s replacement at McLaren, Sainz’s home for two years. The Woking-based crew led the midfield battle then, ending 2020 third in the standings (but 117 points off of second-place Red Bull). Sainz’s breakthrough year came with the papaya as he secured his first podium in 2019.

However, one of the lasting memories of Sainz’s McLaren chapter is how he bonded with the team, especially then-teammate Lando Norris. The duo formed what is still known today among fans as ‘Carlando,’ the term even popping up during competitions like the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.

Recreating that close friendship bond is rare, especially in a ruthless sport where the drivers’ market can be fluid. But Sainz and Leclerc clicked quickly, becoming so close that many fans wondered online whether it was a PR stunt pulled by Ferrari. Those types of comments continued for years, even when on-track frustrations flared.


Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz prepare to play a game in the paddock during previews ahead of the Australian GP in 2023. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

“I honestly keep seeing sometimes in social media that people believe it’s not true and it’s all PR. And honestly, it disappoints me because people cannot sometimes understand that we have a professional relationship, and in that professional relationship, we go through ups and downs,” Sainz said in Qatar. “As competitive as we are, we’re always going to have some issues on track because, again, if he would be P1 and I would be P8 or vice versa, we would never have issues, but unfortunately, or let’s say fortunately for the team, we’re always in the same point on the track, and we’re having our little issues here and there.

“But then we also have a personal relationship, and as much as the professional one goes through ups and downs, the personal one, I can tell you, it’s always been really, really good.”

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Leclerc and Sainz have clashed on track over the seasons but battled within the lines dictated by Ferrari (like at the 2024 United States Grand Prix, where they finished 1-2, the 2023 Italian Grand Prix and this year’s Las Vegas GP).

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the ferraris made sure we were all entertained 🤺🤺 #f1 #formula1 #f1sprint #usgp #ferrari #carlossainz #charlesleclerc

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They are allowed to fight. And as noted by Sainz, they’re fighting for the same high-scoring positions, which starkly contrasts his stints at McLaren, Renault and Toro Rosso (now RB). He wasn’t fighting for wins when competing for previous teams, and none of those stops came with the same pressure that being a Ferrari driver brings. After all, it is the oldest team on the grid and a prestigious and legendary brand.

Sometimes, friction arises in the professional relationship, like during the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Leclerc gave a fiery radio message, saying, “Yeah, I did my job, but being nice f— me over all the f— time.” He was reluctant to go into details, and team principal Fred Vasseur felt Leclerc’s radio remarks were about the difficult situation, not one specific moment.

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Communication, though, appears to be a hallmark of their relationship. They are able to separate the professional from the personal, but they also move on from misunderstandings quickly rather than allowing it to drag on to another race weekend.


Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz dressed as cowboys in the paddock ahead of the United States Grand Prix in 2023. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Leclerc said in Qatar: “Whatever happened in Vegas, we discussed about it, and we are all good, which is the most important thing. I had no doubts about that because we’ve always had a really good relationship with Carlos and we’ve had races where sometimes things don’t go exactly the way we want, but the most important thing is that we discuss about it and we go forward.”

Leclerc was later asked in the same news conference what was said that made him comfortable putting trust in Ferrari and Sainz. He doubled down on the relationship and communication aspect again. “Sometimes I have overstepped the lines, and sometimes he did,” Leclerc said. “And then it only requires a discussion between us two. And we look ourselves in the eye, and we know each other since a very long time now. We understand each other very, very quickly.”

Come Sunday, once the checkered flag falls, the cameras turn off and the debriefs wrap up, that’ll be it. Sainz is driving in the post-season test with Williams, his new home, and it’ll be the end of an era in red. While the chapter will close on Sainz and Leclerc’s professional relationship, it’s hard to imagine that the dynamic duo of C² will cease to exist. This relationship, like any friendship, is different than ‘Carlando.’


Leclerc and Carlos Sainz celebrate in parc ferme during the Monaco GP on May 26, 2024. (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

And as Leclerc said, Sainz will only be working “20 meters away in the paddock.” But that doesn’t mean he won’t miss his teammate. His helmet for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend is indicative of it.

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Etched on the top of the glittered helmet is “mucha5 gracia5 Carlos” — a nod to Sainz’s car number, 55.

“(Leclerc’s) one of those guys that I know in the future when I’m not in Formula One, I’ll look back and say I’m glad I met him, and I’m glad I raced with him, and I’m glad I can have a lot of good memories with him,” Sainz said in Qatar. “And in these four years in Ferrari, I’ve enjoyed every single moment with him, even the tough ones. As much as they’ve been tough, I’m pretty sure in 20-30 years I’ll laugh about them and look back with being proud of what we’ve achieved together.”

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Top photos: Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire, Chris Graythen/Getty Images, Clive Mason – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images; Design: Meech Robinson/The Athletic

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