Carlos Sainz, after winning the 2024 Dakar: “Next year…”

Carlos Sainzrecently won his fourth Dakar Rally At 61 years old, he suggested that he is thinking about returning to the world’s most demanding raid event in 2025. In fact, the Spanish pilot acknowledged that his wife, Kingshas already given him the go-ahead if a project comes up that attracts him after he finishes in 2024 in Audi.

“Next year…”, answered Sainz on the Antena 3 program ‘The Anthill’ before thinking carefully about what he said. “Let me enjoy this. We tend to think right away about the next thing. Reyes has already given me permission. The first thing I have to see is if there is a project. If one comes out with the car ready it is easier, but if I’m going to try to do it again as much as possible,” said Sainz to Pablo Motos.

“I had all the confidence in myself and the team, otherwise I would not have gone to the Dakar. At the age of 61, there are still dreams to be fulfilled. Since I was a child I had a brutal imagination, but dreams sometimes come true, so dreaming It’s healthy,” said the Madrid driver, who has been more calm about things this year.

“Over the years your philosophy is different, but if you are there you can win. Maybe in other years I had an overreaction depending on the situations, but this time, before going to Dakar, I decided to have fun with myself, you are not overwhelmed, I took it a little more philosophically, and noticed it. There were moments of great tension, but Lucas did well. To put up with me also has merit,” said Sainz, referring to work and coexistence. with his co-pilot, Lucas Cruz.

“With age you enjoy it more because you have a different perspective than when you were young. After breaking two vertebrae last year, I wanted to go back and try it. I haven’t suffered at all. Personally, I suffer more in my neck, the lower back and culete also suffer after five or six hours of bouncing the car,” commented Carlos with a smile.

“Now I’m not the same as I was five, seven or 10 years ago. You have to prepare more than when you were 30 years old, and in a different way. And you have to have more will because it costs more to you. to practice,” recognized the Spanish driver, champion of a Dakar that took the life of the motorcycle driver Carles Falcon.

“The world of motorsport reminds you from time to time that things happen. At the starting line, nobody thinks that something will happen to them, but motorsport is a sport with risks,” agreed Sainz, who brought home a great joy for his visiting family when he reached the finish line of the Dakar as champion.