Carlos Sainz: “The clock doesn’t care if you are 20 or 62 years old”

Carlos Sainz is already 62 years old and is not retiring. He could be playing dominoes in a neighborhood bar, but no. He prefers to fight with the desert. His is not the typical mid-sixties crisis: while some of his friends have a hard time climbing stairs, he decides to get on a 360-horsepower monster and face the Dakar 2025 with the excitement of the first day. Maybe more. This was seen at the presentation of the project in Madrid, just a week away from traveling to Bisha, the starting point of this edition, where the extraordinary power of ‘El Matador’ to attract people became clear. “I don’t want to say it anymore because my wife tells me off, but you all know that I want to be the first grandfather to win the Dakar,” he joked. Sainz’s challenges always seem huge, but this year’s is even more so. The Ford Raptor T1+ that he will take to Saudi Arabia is still learning to walk. The vehicle has carried out about 10,000 kilometers of tests since 2023, some with Sainz himself at the wheel, but no one knows if it will be enough. Winning with a project started from scratch, that is the objective. Related news standard No Sports How a driver prepares for the Dakar, the toughest and most demanding rally in the world AP standard Yes Cristina Gutiérrez, winner of the Dakar 2024: «I have had to demonstrate much more than a man” David Sánchez de Castro “If I had to go backwards and make a strategy for how to start a car I wouldn’t change anything, and that is very positive. Having people you know makes it a lot easier, you know you speak the same language. Sainz refers to Malcolm Wilson, the head of the Ford project, who is also the first to trust Carlos in the World Rally Championship. «With him you know that you speak the same language. “Productive things are discussed, not subtleties.” And then, experience also counts: «Even though the project is new, I’m going to get it done. I know what I want, what I need from a car, and that’s what I ask for. If I’m clear that something works, I don’t try it anymore.” Sainz will not only fight against the possible sins of his car’s youth, but against competition that won’t make it easy for him either. Toyota, with three extra-durable Hilux driven by De Villiers, Moraes and Quintero; and Dacia, which has transformed the Sandero into a Sandrider to deliver to Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez. Both rivals mount turbochargers compared to the naturally aspirated engine of the American car. Al Attiyah, the great rival «Dacia has more experience and in terms of reliability it is an advantage. Seeing what happened in Morocco I would say that there has never been so much equality, but I think they have a little more speed. I’m afraid the duel will be with Al Attiyah,” the Spaniard revealed about his rivals. History says that a completely new car has never won the Dakar. But, far from seeming like a handicap, Sainz’s eyes light up thinking about what that means: «If I didn’t believe that Ford was a winning project, I wouldn’t be in it. The first year of a car is always difficult. There are always surprises. But statistics are there to be broken, and it is something that motivates me and the entire team. Sainz, by the way, did not want to confess how far he was from his son in the test with the Ferrari F1-75 that they both did in Fiorano, as a farewell to his son. Back at the Dakar, Sainz assured that at the moment he would not look beyond this January. «Ford’s project is three years, but I have made a promise to go year by year. I will look in the mirror and ask myself if I had fun and measured up. “I will decide based on those answers,” said the Spaniard about the duration of the project, leaving the future up in the air as always. Sainz’s narrative, however, is now different. There is no other guy in the world who has conquered the Dakar with four different brands (Volkswagen, Peugeot, Mini and Audi), now he faces the challenge of giving Ford its first victory. It sounds epic. It sounds impossible. Actually, it sounds like Carlos Sainz being Carlos Sainz. Again challenging dunes and tuning engines. Proving that age is nothing more than a number when it comes to defeating the desert. «Anyone who knows me will immediately detect the day when I don’t have motivation or desire. I am the first one who has to give everything, there is a team of one hundred people behind me. The chrono does not deceive. You can have a lot of motivation, but if you are not fast… the time doesn’t matter if you are 20 or 62 years old.

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