Joining Scuderia Ferrari is an iconic moment for a racing driver. But for Carlos Sainz, who moved to the Maranello team at the start of the 2021 Formula 1 season, that point moment stands out for being just a little bit unusual.
Due to the difficult circumstances, no grand ceremony at Maranello or a celebratory lunch with his new bosses. Instead, becoming an official Ferrari driver was all done on what seemed to be a very normal morning when he got out of bed.
“It’s actually a bit of a funny story because it had been a long negotiation period,” – Carlos explained, in a recent interview for Motorsport.com regarding the time he officially signed for the Italian side.
“It was during COVID [lockdown], so talks were all done on Zoom and phone calls, which made everything a bit more tricky. We had to adapt to the situation and I signed it on the exact same table that I’m doing this interview now here in Madrid, in the little office that we have in the house. We had been spending all the lockdown together with the family, and then suddenly one day I wake up around 8am, and I’m still in my pyjamas. I come into this room, and I see that my dad is ready with a pen. He says: ‘You need to sign here: it is the Ferrari contract. And it’s done if you sign.’ So I signed it in my pyjamas at 8am, just after waking up! I was like ‘Okay, good morning to you too’.”
Since that contract formally kicked in at the start of this year, Carlos Sainz can be pleased with his performance so far. From his first test at Fiorano in a 2018 car earlier this year, when the turnout of tifosi to greet him proved an eye-opener, to the different experiences he has faced at the team, Carlos Sainz has embedded himself well.
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It has been a journey and, for someone as down to earth as the Spaniard, it has been a bit of an eye-opener about how others perceive him, especially when he meets the tifosi.
“It is true that the fans in Italy are super passionate, and super respectful in a way that I didn’t expect. I mean even touching you, or shaking your hand, for them it is something super special. They really respect you, and they really have you on a pedestal for some reason, and it’s quite impactful. They get super nervous when you’re near them, and this is a feeling that I’ve never had before as a driver: just how nervous people become when you’re close to them. I tap them on the back and say, ‘come on, I’m a 27 year old, like you, just relax and take the pictures’. But I often take the phone from them to take it myself. It is crazy and I love it. They are also super funny with the things that they say, so life has changed a bit, but at the same time I’ve managed to keep a good balance.” – he explained.
But the attention to Carlos is not just from the fans. In Italy Ferrari is under the media spotlight much more than other teams and that brings with it a change of behaviour.
Carlos Sainz knows that he now has to think before he speaks, for just one flippant remark can be enough to create a story spiralling out of control.
“It is an interesting thing about how little ‘news’ can become huge ‘news’ just because you are Ferrari, or part of Ferrari. In Italy, this happens a lot and it’s something that I’m still learning how to handle. I’m still learning to know how to speak in some ways, to realise that maybe if I say things this way instead of saying it the other way, it can become a huge headline or not. As a driver, I’m in the process of trying to educate myself how to handle these kind of situations because it’s not easy at all.” – he added.
What the enhanced fan and media interest has shown Carlos Sainz is that driving for Ferrari brings with it something that does not exist in other teams: it’s of being a part of something much bigger.
“There is an extra responsibility that doesn’t exist in other teams,” he admits. “The fact that you are racing for a country is different, you know. It’s like you’re at the same time playing for Real Madrid and for Spain. Racing for Ferrari means you are racing for Ferrari and for Italy, and you need to be aware of that and have the responsibility that comes with it. But for me it is an honour. Italy is a country that I love and that I spend a lot of time in. When I was a kid, I grew up in Italy, racing go karts, so I grew up knowing the passion that there is in Italy for Ferrari, and I grew up knowing that a lot of these karters that I was racing against wanted to be a Ferrari driver. The fact that it turned out to be me, is a huge honour and a huge privilege. It’s something that I’m very proud of.” – he added.
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