Life as a 'smooth operator', work experience dreams and his dad’s valuable advice – Getting to know the real Carlos Sainz

Our Getting to Know series homes in on another F1 driver this week as we put Carlos Sainz – with some help from trainer Pierluigi ‘Gigi’ Della Bona over a game of table football – to the quickfire question test. From how he fell in love with the sport to words of wisdom from his father, he shares it all in the video player above and transcript below…

Carlos, can you describe yourself in three words?

I would say thoughtful, rational and (after scoring a goal) good at football!

Pierluigi, how would you describe Carlos?

Kind, a really Smooth Operator, and I call him ‘toro’, like ‘bull’. He’s really strong and what he does is amazing. Handsome, also!

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Back to you Carlos. What do you think is your best quality?

I hate talking about myself. I really don’t like when people ask me these questions, because I believe there’s already too many people in the paddock analysing me and saying how I am. I’ll leave that to other people! What I can tell you [from] what people say is what I said, rational, thoughtful, strategic, things like that. But honestly, I’m following what people say. I don’t like talking about myself!

Pierluigi, maybe that’s another good one for you. What do you think Carlos’s best quality is?

Carlos: Don’t say handsome!

He’s a hard worker. His best quality is that he’s brave. He never gives up, he continues to fight every time, working hard. It’s really good stuff for a driver, I think.

Carlos, what made you fall in love with F1?

Umm… Watching Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen battle back in the 2000s. That golden era, I think, was incredible for F1. Just seeing them, they were my idols when I was 10 years old, when they were fighting for championships.

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There’s a lot of pressure on this next question… How many times did it take you to pass your driving test?

Zero… I mean, one!

No issues?

No issues. But that’s I guess expected, no, for an F1 driver?

It’s better than some other F1 drivers… I won’t name names…

No, better not name them then!

Who is your best friend inside the paddock?

Apart from my team, so obviously friends inside the team… Friend is a strong word that I don’t like using for anything or anyone. My best relationship in the paddock of all the drivers and engineers I would say still Lando [Norris] and some of my engineers that I’ve had – Tom Stallard, Ricky [Riccardo Adami], I have really good relationships with.

This is pretty topical with what we’re doing right now, but if you could form an F1 five-a-side football team, who would be in it and why?

Fernando [Alonso] and me, I think we’re probably the best. Pierre [Gasly], I saw him play quite decently. I would take Gigi. He’s the best defender, like nearly professional he was at his time. If I can get a wildcard that’s not an F1 driver, I’ll take Gigi. Goalkeeper, anyone?

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Pierluigi: My colleague, if you want!

What’s your ultimate meal? That’s a starter, main, dessert and drink…

I would say for starter a slice of pizza, for main a smash burger, a good smash burger, and for dessert a tiramisu, gelato, cheesecake, pancakes, things like that…

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? And how important is Gigi over the course of a race weekend on that side of things?

I always say more or less the same, which is I remember when I arrived to go-karting and I was 10, 11 years old, I was a bit too nice and too polite to the other drivers, always thinking everyone’s my friend. My dad told me in this sport you either bite or get bitten, so you’d better start biting now. Since then, I’ve become the one that always tries to push and bite, and Gigi helps me with that, keeping me motivated. When he sees that I’m being a bit too lazy or a bit too comfortable, he just makes sure he’s firing me up. He fires me up a lot, sometimes even too much!

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What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received?

I would say things like ‘be careful’, things that make you back off a bit. I think things that warn you to take it easy with the conditions, then you always go with a step of, not fear, but not wanting to push flat out. I always perform at my best when I just don’t care about the situation and have a single mentality that it’s just go for it, and I think that’s the best mentality you can have in any condition, any sport, anything.

Which other job do you wish you could try for a day? Maybe you two could swap roles?

I wouldn’t mind, actually! I would also like to be a strategist for a day, maybe Team Principal for a month, to see how it is. Things like that!

A bit of work experience…

Yeah. To touch every job. Race Engineer, be on the radio to the driver, talking to him, because I know what the driver wants and needs. Things like that I would like, to do a bit of experience on all the matters.

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Where do you want to be in five years’ time?

Somewhere where I can be world champion, or I’ve been already world champion, or I’m about to be. But in the right place, at the right time, trying to be world champion!