The arrival of the 2022 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix has made the paddock turn its attention to Carlos Sainz, who for the first time faces his home race with the real possibility of climbing to the top of the podium. The Ferrari driver had a difficult start to the world championship due to two consecutive retirements in Australia and Imola, but he made up for it by being third in Miami, although still behind the two clear candidates for the title, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.
With the pressure on him to achieve his first victory in the Gran Circo, the man from Madrid explained how he has prepared himself and what it would mean to do it in front of his public: “I don’t feel so impatient about it. I want it, but you have to think that I’ve been for a victory since the day I arrived in Formula 1”.
“I’ve waited a long time, so I’m willing to have to wait even longer,” said Sainz. “Doing it at my home grand prix would be the best, and I keep thinking and dreaming about it, in the same way that when I was here, at 10 years old, I dreamed of being a Formula 1 driver and it happened.
“Then I dreamed of being a Ferrari driver, and it happened. I dream of winning,” the Spaniard continued. “This last week, I’ve been training at home, I’ve been trying to recover from the little pain I have in my neck from the Miami accident to come here fully prepared, I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
Sainz is an elite athlete, and he knows that dedicating time to his physique is key to going for victory in the highest category of motorsport: “It’s what motivates me and what makes me go to train at 7 o’clock tomorrow pushing like crazy. I think about it but it doesn’t obsess me”.
“The same thing happened to me when I was 10 years old and I said to my father, I want to be a Formula 1 driver one day. You imagine yourself as a Formula 1 driver and 10 years later it happened, and 8 years later, I am racing as Ferrari driver in the grand prix of my country, with a crowd that supports me”, said the Madrilenian.
“Things happen, and history has told me. If you keep believing in it, if you keep going for it, if you keep your head down, and this is what I’m here trying to do. If it’s not in Spain, I’ll do it again.” to try in Monaco, and then again in Canada,” said Sainz when talking about the victory.
“It’s a good feeling to go into every race knowing you have a chance, if I hadn’t believed in myself I would never have been here,” he acknowledged. “Sometimes it’s hard, you have better days, worse days, but we keep the only goal in mind because I’ve been lucky, I’m the only one in a million who probably achieves his dream, but you have to keep fighting.”
The start of the 2022 season, as Sainz himself has admitted, has not been ideal due to his two consecutive retirements, but he remains positive because he has reached the podium in each race he has finished.
“I am the first who is not 100% happy with how everything has gone, but at the same time, if you look at it positively, all the races we have finished have been on the podium,” defended the Spaniard. “Although I am not 100% happy with the car, I am fighting for pole positions.”
“I’m finishing on the podium, although those two zeros in Australia and Imola have a pretty big effect on the drivers’ championship. At the same time, with 17 races to go, I think we still have plenty of time to recover, and now with With the next upgrade package, the car will be developed a bit, hopefully I can get it a bit more to my liking and the season gets going.”
