How Carlos Sainz used motorsport heritage on path to F1

Carlos Sainz

How Sainz used motorsport heritage on path to F1

Sainz's father is a world rally legend

Ewan Gale

Sunday 30 May 2021 16:58

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Carlos Sainz has revealed how his relationship with his world rally legend father helped him establish a career in motorsport.

Carlos Sainz Sr is a two-time WRC and three-time Dakar Rally champion and has followed his son through the junior ranks until now where he drives for Ferrari.

Asked if the choice to be a racing driver was a personal one, Sainz Jr. said: "It is a good question because I think in my case it is 90 per cent my own choice and 10 per cent maybe influenced by my family.

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"I am pretty sure if I wasn't born with the genes and the talent of my dad and family, being surrounded by racing cars and by that atmosphere, it would have been a lot more difficult for me to fall in love with... it doesn't matter if it is rally or F1 because I was watching F1 races with my dad."

F1 was Sainz's first love

Despite his father being such a prominent name on the world rally circuit, Sainz insisted his first love was F1 due to its accessibility through media.

"Rally, honestly, even if I was very close to my dad, I didn't understand a lot about rally because you couldn't follow it too much on TV," he added.

"He was going away for two or three weeks and I couldn't follow what he was doing whereas with F1, since I was nine years old I could follow it on TV, there was an F1 game.

"I could spend a lot more time following F1 and in the end, go-karting was also closer to F1 than rallying because it is a single-seater with an engine and a circuit and you race each other so my career was always going to go towards F1 I think."

Sainz hastened to add he was not pushed into the sport, insisting it was his love for the sport that pressurised his parents into taking him to the kart track.

"My dad never ever forced me into motorsport," he explained. "He was actually happy that I played football at school and tennis and paddle and all the other sports and he never commented on going professional racing or karting.

"It was me who pushed him to help me in pursuing that career so it is a lot of personal choice, and I encourage parents of future generations to make sure they don't force their kids into something.

"It needs to be the kids that are the ones who drive the force and will to pursue their own will and their own career."