Getting to Formula 1 is not an easy road. To compete in this sport, it is necessary to have talent, without a doubt, and then financial support which allows access to the elite. Just a year ago, he arrived at Ferrari, a team under reconstruction and in search of fresh air in its single-seaters to return to the top of Formula 1. A few weeks ago he secured his first pole position and his first victory of his racing career with Ferrari at the Silverstone circuit. The first of a complicated year since it cost him dearly to adapt to this year’s Ferrari. The report “Sainz. Against everything. ‘DAZN’ ‘Contra todos’ reviews his entire sports career until getting his signature by the Maranello team. “Things don’t come by themselves, you have to work at it,” says Sainz Sr.
Not everyone succeeded, but Sainz arrived in 2015 at the hands of Toro Rosso after making some testing at Silverstone for Red Bull in 2013 where he bettered the times of champion Sebastian Vettel and after winning the World Series in 2014. In addition to track competition, he had to deal with the rumors circulating in karting and formula racing. “Here is the son of Carlos Sainz”, was heard at every race. Sainz has always been criticized, says Pedro de la Rosa. “People were like, ‘Well, it’s going well, but of course he has the best kart, he’s still training…’. There was always a “but”. If his name had been López, they would have said: he’s brilliant.” For his father, the successes that Carlos Sainz enjoys are the result of the daily work to be a Formula 1 driver: “What seems frivolous to me is to think that today, at the level we are in Formula 1, it is because of the family name.
“Alonsomania”
Fernando Alonso is essential for Carlos Sainz to be a Formula 1 driver today. Sainz first met his idol Fernando Alonso at the 2005 Spanish GP when he was 11 years old. “If he is in Formula 1 at the moment, it is because of those magical years of 2005, 2006 or 2007, in which he lived Formula 1 with great passion and wanted to be like Fernando Alonso. In Barcelona , the day he met him and shook his hand, there is a very famous photo of the two of them, we see a boy with his eyes open, as if he saw God”, says journalist Antonio Lobato in the documentary.
After three and a half seasons at Faenza, he left for Renault at the end of 2017 in the middle of the championship. His time at Toro Rosso showed his high level, but since Red Bull bet on Verstappen to be promoted to the first team. Sainz has had a difficult time with current world champion Max Verstappen. “The tension in the box was almost enemy”, says his friend Gustavo Durán. Already at Renault, he couldn’t take off and the 2018 season was one of the worst in his career.
Alonso’s departure from McLaren left a void for the Madridista at Woking. Here he took off, he broke all the cabals of the “paddock” against him. A podium in Brazil in 2019 and a second place at Monza 2020 were his best arguments, doubled by two sixth places in the drivers’ classification, to leave Woking for Maranello. “The moment you sign the contract and realize you are a Ferrari driver, your life changes completely. The first time you put on the red jumpsuit, the first time you put on the red beanie, or the first time you see yourself in red, you look in the mirror and assume that you will never forget this moment, even if you are 80 or 90 years old. .″, acknowledged Carlos Sainz. Victory at Silverstone completes Ferrari’s bet on him, in the first of many that may come for the Madrid native. Carlos Sainz already has the respect of paddock.