Sainz foresees no conflict of interest in Sainz Sr’s mooted FIA presidential bid

Carlos Sainz has explained some of the rationale behind his father and two-time world rally champion Carlos Sainz Sr considering running for FIA president – while also believing there would be no conflict of interest given he races in Formula 1.

As revealed by Autosport last week, Sainz Sr is currently assessing whether to formally stand for election in the race to become FIA president against Mohammed Ben Sulayem, and is understood to be gauging his level of support from the FIA’s member automotive clubs before making a final decision.

Speaking about his father’s current position, Sainz explained that the idea was put to the 62-year-old Spaniard first, who then started to become more convinced by the idea of running for president over time.

While admitting that it was difficult for him to be objective, the Williams driver felt that Sainz Sr had the credentials and experience needed to sufficiently understand the requirements of becoming FIA president – should he choose to run.

“Yeah, obviously we’ve been talking about it for a while now,” said the junior Sainz ahead of this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

“Interestingly enough, I think it’s something that didn’t actually come from him. A lot of people in the paddock were kind of putting it in his head and little by little he started considering it.

“And now he’s obviously thinking about it. I think the key is that he still hasn’t put together a team or a candidature, I don’t know how you call it. But he’s considering it and depending obviously on how he sees it and sees his fit, he will go for it or not.

“I’m his son, so I’m biased, but speaking from the most objective position possible, it doesn’t come to my head anyone that has lived through all the karting days with his son and knows the roots of motorsport in go-karting as he did four or five years of go-karting with me. 

“He did four or five years of single-seaters with me, knowing how tough, expensive, difficult that ladder is. 

“He’s done 10 years in Formula 1 with me. He’s done 40 years of rallying, raids. He does a lot of mobility work in Spain with the ‘Ponle Freno’ [road safety] campaign. 

“He’s a guy that covers so many experiences in so many different areas of motorsport, coming to the end of his career obviously in racing – trying to find a way to give back to motorsport what motorsport has given to him.”

Sainz suggested that his father would take a “common sense” approach to the political wrangling involved in managing the governance of motorsport.

Mohammed ben Sulayem, FIA President

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

He added that he could not think of any scenarios where Sainz’s current racing career and his father’s potential presidential ambitions would create a conflict of interest – stating that his family was “honest”.

“He’s trying to understand how the elections work, how much convincing, how many people he needs to obviously go and talk to,” the 30-year-old added.

“But he’s evaluating the whole thing and trying to understand how everything works. It’s his thing now.

“I’m obviously very busy here with Williams doing my own thing. So, I’m leaving it to him in a way. He gives me an update of the situation every one or two weeks, how much progress he’s doing or what’s the situation.

“I think that’s the negative side of it, the politics. But I think that if there’s a guy that could remove politics from it, it could also be a bit my dad because he sticks to common sense and very basic rules of going about life and things.

“I’ve been trying to think of scenarios where it could [be a conflict of interest] but I actually don’t see any way how that could be seen. 

“If anything, obviously he will be extremely careful, I will be extremely careful because the last thing that I want is my or his image or career to be damaged by that situation. So if anything, we would do the opposite effect and I don’t see any conflict.

“OK, there is the moment you personally know my dad or you personally know me. We are honest people, I would never ever compromise that situation in motorsport.”