Imagine idolizing someone as you sit there, as a kid, and dreaming your big dreams. We’ve all done that. But Carlos Sainz has taken it one step further. The Spanish racing ace grew up on motorsports, and he, like so many of us, had his own heroes. But none of them ever appealed to him like his own countryman, Fernando Alonso. During Sainz’s formative years, Alonso was tearing F1 apart. Lo-and-behold, all those years later, Sainz grew up to fulfill one very important promise he had made to himself and his father.

Sainz, as a driver for Ferrari, has a few distinct privileges available to him. For starters, he’s driving at an iconic team that his childhood hero, Alonso, drove for. Secondly, and more importantly, he gets to rub shoulders and bang wheels with his hero for a living! If that isn’t enough, it was a promise he made to his father some 18 years ago that he today can proudly say that he has fulfilled.

What made Carlos Sainz choose F1

Given the rich legacy his father, Carlos Sainz Sr. left in the World Rally Championship, it wouldn’t have been far-fetched to assume that Sainz Jr. would follow his father’s footsteps and pave a career for himself in that particular discipline. But one moment changed his entire life.

On the P1 with Matt & Tommy channel on YouTube, Sainz was asked why he chose F1 over the sport of Rallying. Sainz responded by narrating a story that revealed exactly why! He began, “Why? Because when I was 10 years old, I was switching on the TV to watch Formula 1 races with my dad. My dad had just stopped racing at that time, in 2004 in rallying. And I remember, I was waking up, waking him up at 3AM in morning to watch [the] Australian Grand Prix. We both started following F1 together. In 2005, we went to [the] Spanish Grand Prix. I met Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher.” 

Something clicked for the young Spaniard that day. He revealed, “When I came back from that trip in 2005, I was 10 years old and I told my dad, ‘I want to be like Fernando Alonso!‘”

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Safe to say, he’s achieved that and much more as he carves a niche out for himself in the sport alongside Charles Leclerc with the Scuderia. But the icing on the cake for Sainz would be the words Alonso, his hero, has showered on him.

Fernando Alonso has high hopes for Sainz

Back when Ferrari announced that Sainz will be joining the team as a replacement for Sebastian Vettel, a lot of eyebrows were raised. Even though at McLaren, the young Spanish racing ace had proved his salt, could he live up to the lofty standards of the prancing horse? Well, Alonso was never a doubter.

Alonso was quoted back in the day as saying, “Since Toro Rosso, he has done a great job. He had [Max] Verstappen as a partner from the beginning, after that he had [Nico] Hulkenberg. He has always had tough competitors at his side and he has always done well. That is good for Spain and for the sport. I hope he has a good future.”

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Do you think Carlos Sainz has proved his mettle at Ferrari?