Rule-Breaking Carlos Sainz Gets His Father Into Trouble With the FIA

Carlos Sainz has been quite active during the F1 off-season. The Spaniard is present in Saudi Arabia to support his father Carlos Sainz Sr. participating in the Dakar Rally 2023. Although, his support may have just gone a little overboard, as Sainz Sr. may have gotten into trouble due to his son. The Ferrari driver tried to help his father, as he stopped for some repairs in the desert. While the FIA stewards have disregarded this incident to not penalize Sainz Sr.

As per GPBlog.com, Sainz has been following his father’s progress via helicopter all across the route of the rally. Although, when the rally car legend was repairing the car with his co-driver, Carlos was present near them to offer some help. Now the rules don’t allow for any outside help during the rally, as the drivers have to do everything by themselves.

Nevertheless, after the 4-time Dakar winner finished with the repairs, Carlos Sainz Jr. closed the door of the car. The stewards ruled that the participant (Sainz Sr.) did not request this action from the F1 driver. Thus, the FIA won’t consider it as a penalty.

Yet, the stewards have cited how the father-son duo should set examples of following the rules and not display any rule-breaking behavior. Carlos Sainz Jr. should be careful of being near his father’s car for the rest of the Dakar rally.

Read More: Carlos Sainz Jr. Showers His Dad With Praise for Dominating in the Dakar Rally

Sainz’s father has been a champion of the Dakar rally, winning it 4 times to date. He had started Dakar 2023 brilliantly in the 1st stage, though now has fallen back, competing with Audi for the first time. The 2-time World Rally champion would love to recover and win Dakar a 5th time, especially with his son present.

The History of the Dakar Rally and the triumphs of Carlos Sainz Sr.

Carlos Sainz Sr. is an experienced campaigner in rally car racing. The Spaniard has been racing long rally courses for years and understands the intricacies of the discipline. Though, the Dakar Rally isn’t an easy competition to win multiple times.

Starting as a Europe-Africa series, the Dakar Rally had different courses over the years across Europe and Africa. Every year the route used to change, either a transcontinental one or completely based in Africa, mostly.

The Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal route is one of the major routes. Though, the endurance series has been moved to different locations since 2008. The 2008 rally took place in Hungary and Romania as the Central European Rally, due to violence in Mauritania, Africa.

The rally took place in South America for a decade or so until 2019. Then, it was moved to Saudi Arabia in 2020. Carlos Sainz Sr. had his first Dakar win in the 2008 CE rally that acted as the rescheduled event of Dakar 2008.

After that, Sainz also won Dakar 2010 held across Argentina and Chile in South America. The Rally legend’s recent Dakar triumphs came in 2018 in South America and the first Saudi Arabia edition in 2020.

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The prestige of winning this endurance series of Dakar is quite high. Carlos Sainz has always been proud of his father to master this difficult off-track discipline. After this close call of helping him, Sainz would love to avoid any errors from his side and watch his dad win Dakar a 5th time.