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At 11 years old, in his hometown of Madrid, Carlos Sainz Jr. finally saw the legend that his father had become in motorsport.
In November of 2004, the capital of Spain hosted a celebration for Carlos Sainz Sr., honoring his successes as a rally driver and his recent announcement that he would be retiring from the sport.
“When we went as a family to Madrid that day, and I heard so many people chanting his name, it shocked me,” recalled Sainz Jr. in a feature he penned for Formula 1 in 2020 about his father’s legacy.
“It was only when he retired, with two World Rally titles and 26 rally victories, that I really got to know my dad. I would ask him lots of questions, one after the other, non-stop. And he would always answer. I hung on his every word. I wanted to be a driver. I wanted to be like him.”
This passion was obvious to Sainz Sr., and he took it upon himself to mentor his son and be the guiding hand that any young person chasing a dream sometimes needs.
“I somehow saw that he was serious about it and told him that it was going to be hard and that a lot of commitment is required,” he said in a 2015 interview about Sainz Jr’s F1 debut. “Of course I also wanted him to keep on studying, as it was not one hundred percent clear how serious he was - and how good… But very shortly after it became clear that he really wanted to go down that avenue.”
This was a key factor for Sainz Sr., and later in the same interview he said, “I am aware that in the case of [...] Carlos a number of people will ask, ‘Is it the dad that wants it, or the son?’ I think it is clear now for any doubter: it’s the son!”
The ‘son of Carlos Sainz’
But in any situation with a child following in the footsteps of the incredibly successful father, the family name will carry a certain weight, whether for better or worse. And as a young karter, Sainz Jr. often had to contend with living in his father’s shadow.
“When I was 11-12 years old and I started competing and was going to all these go-kart centers, no-one called me by my name,” said Sainz Jr. to Andrew Benson of the BBC back in 2021.
“I was always 'the son of Carlos Sainz’.”
This certainly didn’t make things easier on him, particularly when his father’s name made him the benchmark by which other parents measured their own children’s success. Nobody cared about winning against a young Carlos. They cared only about winning against that moniker, 'the son of Carlos Sainz’.
"It was tough. I was no one, basically, and I felt this pressure. I was the center of attention at all these go-kart centers and I felt the kids wanted to beat me maybe more than they wanted to beat the other kids."
His father, however, has a different way of looking at things.
“I think a name can be a door opener,” he said in that 2015 interview during Sainz Jr.’s debut, “but then they have to walk on their own - and that’s exactly what [Carlos] did, because there is always a moment where it only counts if you deliver.”
Which is exactly what Sainz Jr. did. He moved on from karting at the end of 2009, and joined the Red Bull Junior Team in 2010 with the ultimate goal of eventually securing an F1 seat. Over the next few years he proved himself in lower formula series, snatching up the 2011 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC title, and by 2013 he was already test driving F1 cars for Red Bull and their sister team, then named Toro Rosso. He made his F1 debut driving for the latter just two years later at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix and hasn’t looked back since.
Making his father’s mindset—and name—his own
Yet over the 11 years that he has been in F1, his father is still the first person Sainz Jr. looks to when he is in need of guidance. That advice is usually more about attitude or mindset than the specifics of driving a car. As he put it in a March 2026 episode of the F1 Beyond The Grid Podcast, “My dad has always told me that there's tenths, there’s extra tenths in the work and dedication of wanting to go a bit beyond that of just driving a car.”
He credits his father’s experience as the source for this, saying, “He's one of the most successful racing drivers ever in rally, and obviously, as his son, I was always going to carry over that methodology of work… that is the key behind what my dad has always educated me.”
That mentality has taken him to some of the biggest teams in F1, from McLaren to Ferrari and now to Williams, where his drive to squeeze out any last drop of performance from his car is a key asset to a team trying to come back to the glory they once knew.
“As you can imagine, I’m a proud father,” said Sainz Sr. to Red Bull writer Matt Majendie back in 2020, “ but more so because I think he worked very hard to arrive where he is now. He decided to go the Formula 1 route. If he'd decided to go the rallying route, I could have helped him much more. I do try to help him whenever I can, but less and less now… I just follow like another fan – maybe a special fan!”
And this upcoming weekend, more than two decades after watching his hometown of Madrid celebrate his father, Sainz Jr. is coming to the city not just as ‘the son of Carlos Sainz’, but as a ‘Carlos Sainz’ all his own: an F1 race winner, a highly successful driver and the ambassador of the new Madring circuit. His family name may have opened some doors, but he forged his own way forward, and now Madrid is celebrating him as the rightful successor to the Sainz family legacy.
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