FIA release official statement over DISQUALIFICATION of Red Bull star

Photo: © IMAGO

FIA

FIA release official statement over DISQUALIFICATION of Red Bull star

Carlos Sainz Sr. has been ruled out of an iconic race

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 11 January 2025 08:58 Updated: 17:03

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The FIA have released a statement regarding the disqualification of two stars from a key event on the motorsport calendar, including a Red Bull athlete.

Following his fourth Dakar Rally success in 2024, Red Bull star Carlos Sainz Sr. - father of four-time Formula 1 grand prix winner Carlos Sainz - went into the 2025 event with high hopes.

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The motorsport legend is now 62 years old but boasts two World Rally Championship titles and, last year, made history as the oldest Dakar Rally winner, adding the title to a plethora of iconic race wins.

Sainz Sr. also recently made his debut in a Ferrari F1 car, driving around the Fiorano track with his son as a leaving present from the team to the Spaniard who has been replaced by Lewis Hamilton.

Carlos Sainz senior is a four-time Dakar Rally champion

Sebastien Loeb was also not allowed to carry on in the Dakar Rally

Carlos Sainz Sr. officially out of Dakar rally

While heading into the 2025 event as the reigning champion, Sainz's Dakar Rally came to an early end, as the 62-year-old suffered an accident, rolling his car in stage two of the event.

The rally legend was able to finish the stage, but he and nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb - who had a similar accident in stage three - were told by the FIA that they would not be allowed to continue in the event.

Sainz's Ford Raptor suffered extensive damage to its roll cage due to the incident, and now the FIA have explained that this was one of the key reasons for the Red Bull athlete's disqualification.

"It's very simple, as soon as a car has an accident on the stage, it has to be checked by the commissaries before it can be repaired," FIA’s cross-country director Jerome Rousel told media at the event.

"And if the roll cage is damaged, it's the same rule in all championships for many years, for decades, as soon as the roll cage is damaged, you can't continue.

"In theory, you can repair it, but repairing a chassis like that is not an easy thing to do overnight in the middle of nowhere. Because repairing for us is replacing the damaged tube with an identical one.

"Adding some material, welding over the crack, things like that are not allowed. That's why, in the case of Carlos, Laia [Sanz] and Seb, all these cars had to be withdrawn or disqualified because the roll cage was damaged, and as soon as the roll cage is damaged, it's not identical to the homologated one, so it can't continue."