Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz has provided more details regarding the comments that me recently made about the prospect of emulating Rubens Barrichello’s Formula 1 career, which many fans and the media misinterpreted as criticism of the former Ferrari driver.
Carlos Sainz, who moved to Scuderia Ferrari ahead of the start of the 2021 Formula One championship, was interviewed a few days ago during an event with personal sponsor Estrella Garcia between the Italian and Russian Grands Prix.
He explained that one question he was asked was who he would choose to imitate if he had to pick between seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who won five of his championship with Ferrari, and Rubens Barrichello, a winner of 11 grands prix who supported the unbroken run of titles Schumacher and Ferrari won from 2000 to 2004.
His statements seem to have been initially reported in Spanish before being picked up by Italian daily newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport and then more widely in the media worldwide. In the Italian media, the comments of Carlos Sainz were presented in three different ways including – translated to English – “Me like Barrichello? Of course not, I want to be world champion someday.”
Explaining the origin of the comments and why he was so disappointed by how they have been interpreted, Carlos Sainz told media ahead of the Russian Grand Prix: “Like always with this kind of thing, and this kind of a criticism for you [the media], I was asked ‘if you could choose between being Barrichello and being Schumacher’ and I said if you let me choose I prefer to win seven world championships. Which makes a lot of sense. But then you go into the headline and see what it is and it makes me feel disappointed. I know you [the journalists present] are not like that but it shows that once a news feed gets news from another and another and another, they end up putting this headline and all the Brazilians end up criticising me over what Rubens did.” – he explained.
While Rubens Barrichello never won a title when he raced for Scuderia Ferrari, he is eighth in the list of the team’s all-time winners, and second for total number of podiums for the team.
“First of all, he won how many races? Eleven. And I won zero. So, I’m no one to criticise Rubens. I’m actually very good friends with him, I have a lot of respect, so you can imagine how disappointed I was when I started reading that in Brazil there were headlines saying I said that. You know how I am. I never speak bad about fellow drivers, even less Ferrari drivers who have won races for Ferrari and championships for Ferrari.” – Carlos Sainz concluded.
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