Up on the podium after Rally Argentina, Carlos Sainz’s face was a picture of satisfaction. But there was also a furrow on his brow. His latest, record-breaking win might just have made the biggest decision of his career even harder.
Should he stay or should he go? It is a question that has been ringing in the 42-year-old Spaniard’s ears for many years now, but only because other people were asking it. In the past 12 months, though, even he has to concede that it’s a question he has to face up to.
“At the moment I am feeling a little guilty,” he says. “I have a daughter and a son at home in Spain and I have spent such a long time away from them. That feeling is getting stronger. This summer the children have a month and a half away from school, but I can only be with them for a week and a half. It seems a little incorrect.”
Sainz’s decision won’t just affect him and his family. After 16 full seasons in the top flight, he has an iconic presence that makes him a figurehead and focal point of the World Rally Championship.
Sainz is the most charismatic of drivers. Right now the championship is in a transitional period in terms of characters. Sure, there’s Petter Solberg, who can certainly entertain, and Marcus Gronholm has his off-the-cuff comedy, too, but with the recent departure – permanent or temporary – of legendary figures such as Tommi Makinen, Colin McRae and Richard Burns, the WRC can scarcely afford to let another slip through its fingers.
On the other hand, there are those who believe that Sainz has had his day. There’s a danger that stars can stay in a sport too long, in the way Jimmy Connors did in tennis or George Foreman in boxing. The difference with Sainz is that he’s still winning and few can offer an alternative to his consistent points-scoring, his ambassadorial status in the sport, his near-obsession with testing – and getting everything just right.
His former team boss at Ford, Malcolm Wilson, remembers that final characteristic with a wince. Sainz spent three years working with the M-Sport squad from 2000 to 2002 and is credited with turning the Focus into a consistent winner. His determination set him apart from other drivers, but it came at a price.
Sainz’s nature to push a team to its full potential was part of his success
Photo by: Motorsport Images
“He pushes people to the edge,” says Wilson. “He certainly did it with me. There were times when Carlos pushed on with something in testing even when it wasn’t doing him any good, or even helping his own situation, but just because it was good for the team. It was great to have someone like him, who was willing to try everything in testing.”
Sainz’s team-mate throughout that period, as well as at Subaru in 1994 and 1995, was McRae. The Scot was quick to praise the Spaniard after the Argentinian win took Sainz’s career tally to 26, one clear of McRae’s own mark, and freely confesses to having enormous respect for the way his rival goes about his work.
“Carlos’s biggest strength is his perseverance,” says McRae, echoing Wilson’s praise and highlighting his standout characteristic. “He has enough patience to be thorough with something until he is satisfied it’s right. And then, when his judgement on something was right, which it usually was, he had the ability to put pressure on the team and everybody until he got his way, which helped with development.”
“Carlos doesn’t have any weaknesses. He does some things better than others, but look how long he’s been at the top; he couldn’t do that if he had a weak spot” Colin McRae
But this season hasn’t been a classic for the two-time world champion, who has struggled to get the Citroen Xsara WRC to suit his driving style. Yet, in Argentina, that was never an issue, and he set about demolishing his opposition from the front. Even his Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb, who has become used to taking seconds off his rival as a matter of course, had to concede that the best he could hope for was to match Sainz’s times.
McRae offers another insight here, arguing that the image of Sainz as steady rather than spectacular doesn’t really ring true. You don’t, he reasons, win on so many surfaces in such varied conditions as the Spaniard has done without being a special talent.
“Carlos doesn’t have any weaknesses,” says the Scot. “He does some things better than others, but look how long he’s been at the top; he couldn’t do that if he had a weak spot.”
Yet the one thing that won’t be driving Sainz on to another year in the WRC is a quest to push his record win total even further. Despite a keen appreciation of the sport’s history, and a great respect of its traditions and past, he remains impassive in the aftermath of his 26th victory.
Sainz celebrates taking his 26th WRC win at Rally Argentina in 2004 – a record at the time
Photo by: Citroen Communication
“It is just a number,” he says. “It doesn’t mean as much as the fact that I have won another rally 17 years after I started in the WRC and 13 years after I won my first event. Argentina was a very nice place to do it. It’s a good rally and the sport is very special to the people here – they are passionate about it.”
Passion is another area that those closest to Sainz highlight when talking about his qualities. He is an open critic of the championship’s drive into areas where the fans don’t have the same fervour as traditional WRC haunts, such as Argentina. He’s not keen on the current car market and media-driven ventures to places like Turkey.
He says: “In Argentina everyone is very welcoming to the rallying family. That is important for rallying. It’s the same way in Portugal. Sometimes people say there are too many people on the stages, but I can’t see that.
“You need good organisation. The public should never be a problem. The more people who come, the better it is for the manufacturers.”
That’s typical Sainz: always happy to state an opinion, but always making his point in a dignified and thought-through fashion. Given his age and status it would be easy to label him the sport’s elder statesman – until you remember that these qualities have set him apart since he first burst onto the world scene.
Juanjo Lacalle, part of his management team, sums it up, saying: “His charisma shines through in everything he does. Carlos the rally man is an extension of Carlos the man. He works really hard and hates losing, even at a game of Ludo. But he’s a great sportsman, and when he loses he gets over it and thinks about what’s next. He’s the leader in the WRC, just as he was the leader of his gang as a kid.”
However, having all-round talent hasn’t always served Sainz well, and he admits his adaptability – a similarly quick pace on gravel and asphalt – didn’t do him any favours when he was searching for his first factory drive. Looking back, though, he reckons the fact he has won almost everywhere (Sweden is the only glaring exception, although he didn’t contest the event until 1995 and was second there in 1996) enhances his reputation.
Sainz’s adaptability on all surfaces made him stand out against his peers
Photo by: Ralph Hardwick
“When I came into the sport, teams were all about specialists, they had this driver for that surface and another for the next,” he says. “When I came in and said I wanted to rally everywhere I was quite upset that people said, ‘Carlos Sainz is not a specialist’. But to be the best driver, you have to be competitive everywhere. Look at [Walter] Rohrl, he never went to Finland. I couldn’t wait to go to Finland.”
It’s an apt point, made all the more striking by the lack of all-rounders in today’s WRC. Only two others have won on loose and sealed surfaces. Solberg took his first win on asphalt in Corsica last year, while that man Loeb has been busily mixing gravel prowess with his asphalt wins all season.
With Loeb winning in Sweden as well this season it’s little wonder Sainz thinks he could be the man to topple his victory tally. “I’m sure that Sebastien can win the title a few times,” he says. “He has a very big talent.”
The trouble is the Frenchman won’t know for at least a few more months, possibly another year or more, just how high that target he’s aiming at is going to be.
Top WRC winners as of end of May 2025
1. Sebastien Loeb 80
2. Sebastien Ogier 63
3. Marcus Gronholm 30
4. Carlos Sainz 26
5. Colin McRae 25
Will Sainz’s attributes displayed in his WRC career help him in a potential FIA presidency bid?
Photo by: M-Sport
In this article
David Evans
WRC
Carlos Sainz Sr
Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics
Subscribe to news alerts
Read the full article here
