Carlos Jr on father influence, pressure of Sainz name

Carlos Sainz says that, without the guidance of his father, it would’ve been “very difficult” to have made it to where he is.

Since joining the grid in 2015, Sainz has achieved a huge amount, driving for two of the biggest teams in McLaren and Ferrari and claiming multiple podiums, with the most recent one coming in Monaco.

Even before all this though, his surname was still a famous one in motorsport due to the rally success of his father, Carlos Sainz Sr.

Discussing his father’s influence on him, the Ferrari driver says that things would have been much harder without him.

“Without his guidance, without his advice, without his way of showing me how to become not only a good driver but a professional – a guy that knows how to move around in a team, how to ask the questions, in which way to ask them, how to build with the challenges we face in F1 –  it would have been very difficult to be where I am right now,” he told Sky F1.

“He was very hard on myself, I’m not going to lie. He was very demanding, but the pressure itself came also on its own with the surname I have.

“When I was a little kid, 11 years old, I was going to all these go-kart races and there was always this chit-chat about ‘the son of Carlos Sainz is here, let’s see how he does, get the stopwatch out, see if my kid is quicker than Carlos Sainz Jnr’.

“So I had this added pressure that made me a bit more shy, a bit more ‘I don’t know why everyone’s looking at me’ and maybe that also helped to prepare me for later in my career.”

Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari merchandise is available via the official Formula 1 store

Sainz’s first season with Ferarri is going excellently for both him and the team, with them fighting McLaren for P3 in the standings after finishing down in P6 in 2020.

The Spaniard says that that’s not enough though, and the only thing that will be is titles.

“Ferrari is not happy with third or fourth place in the Constructors’,” he added.

“Ferrari wants to win the World Championship as soon as possible and our objective is to get our heads down and keep improving the car to get there as soon as possible.”

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