Carlos Sainz Snr has won the first stage of the 2023 Dakar Rally and his family was there on the first day of the year to celebrate and enjoy it with him. Among them there was also was, of course, Carlos Sainz Jr, who followed the Dakar in person for the first time and admitted to being very impressed.
A unique adventure
Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz will be present at this Dakar event in the form of a spectator to support his father, this being the first time he was able to watch the event live since he had never been present at the Dakar Rally.
That is why, after Carlos Sainz Sr’s victory in the first stage, the Ferrari driver was very happy with his father and celebrated his victory.
“It’s my first time here at the Dakar. Obviously I’m learning a lot of new things, and investigating a lot of new things for me, it’s been a great adventure today, following my father from the helicopter and ideally, because he has won this stage. I am happy, my mother is super happy and yes, to be honest it has been a great day”, Carlos admitted.
Ferrari driver not closing the door on competing in the Dakar
But he is not only in Saudi Arabia watching the Dakar Rally for his father, as the Formula 1 driver confirmed that it is a competition he likes and is not ruling out the possibility of entering the Dakar rally in the future.
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“It is something that, of course, if I am here it is because I like it and because it interests me, not just because my father is racing. I’ve been following the Dakar for as long as my father has, since 2006, so 16 or 17 years have passed”, confirms Carlos.
“It’s an awful lot of time that I’ve been following the Dakar. I always wanted to come, it has also caught me on on not very convenient dates, namely the only week of the year that I had to rest and not travel. This year, as the Formula 1 season has ended earlier, I reserved the week of January 1 to go to the Dakar”, adds the Ferrari Formula 1 driver.
In addition, this first stage was not an easy race, since Carlos Sainz suffered a puncture in the first kilometers and had to make up for lost time later. The #55 of Formula 1 had a hard time, even thinking that he was bringing his father bad luck, but he ended up enjoying the great comeback that Sainz snr managed to complete.
“I had a mixture of feelings. The first time I followed him from the helicopter, and when I got to where he was he had to stop with a puncture so I was afraid I was giving him bad luck or something”, comments the Ferrari driver. – “I panicked a bit, seeing him standing there and thinking that it had all ended there. When he was able to continue and push to the maximum, it was incredible to see him get the result he needed, and it was special to follow him from the helicopter. It was the first time I had taken a helicopter to follow my father on a Dakar race and as soon as we had started, we got on the helicopter, we went to look for him and when we found him I saw that he was standing still. That’s when I thought, ‘we’ve already started, I don’t know if I’ve given him bad luck’, but he recovered quickly, they changed the tires and he began to attack and make up for lost time. You can imagine the bad time I’ve had there”, concludes Carlos Sainz Jr.
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