Carlos Sainz: “I appreciate what Nani said, but it’s in my DNA. I’ve done it all my life and I’m not going to change it now.”

Carlos Sainz At the end, I felt “bittersweet” dakar With the final goal of 2026, Yanbu (Saudi Arabia). “Matador” He seemed happy and satisfied with his car’s performance and driving lucas cruz I believe that I could have fought for the title until the end, but I regret not being able to do so because I ruined the title midway through. dakar There was something in the second half of the marathon stage, Stage 10, that left the title on the plate. Nasser Al-Attiyahpilot of carlos He emphasized his talent and ability to avoid any problems with this appointment.

“It’s a bit of a bittersweet evaluation. On the one hand, I’m happy to have finished the Dakar. I don’t think there were any major problems with the car and I think we drove at a good pace. The car was unharmed. And one day was enough to ruin any chance of winning.” We lost almost 45 minutes that day and any chance of victory was gone. It’s tough because the rest of the day went more or less well and one day was enough,” he told Spanish reporters at the bivouac.

“I think we fought for the win. I don’t know if we won or not, but we fought and we were there, almost with Nani in the lead.” On that day (Stage 9) (in Rome) the calculation was easy in the end,” he added, responding to the good words Nani Roma had dedicated to him at Sportish just before.

The Folgerol player praised Carlos for his speed and still desire to continue improving the car even at the age of 63, citing Carlos as a role model for youngsters.

”I appreciate what Nani says, but it’s in my DNA. Every time I get out of my car, I think about how I can make it go faster. I’ve been doing this since I was born into this world, and I have no intention of changing it now. It might be a little obsessive. So I’m always thinking about how I can run faster. ”commented.

Carlos didn’t want to say anything yet about the long-standing tradition of going home after the Dakar and deciding whether to keep talking in the mirror or retire.

“This is always a period of reflection and we will have time to assess everything little by little, not just the race, and make decisions. We are not in a hurry.” Express.

MD once again tried to get Carlos to talk about his future, reminding him that two more wins in the Dakar would help him reach Nasser’s sixth place. But that wasn’t the case. Sainz replied with a little laugh.

Where do you think Nasser made a difference?

“He didn’t mess up any day. That’s why he won. And then we messed up one day and lost 45 minutes. It’s very simple and easy to read.”

Would the Dakar have been different if there had been fewer tire punctures?

“That’s a possibility. It was a Dakar where there were a lot of stones. And of course we had a lot of punctures in the first stage, so I think that slowed the race down a lot. Every time we saw a stone, we were stepping on the egg until the end, and we tried it only when we had nothing to lose. And it just goes to show that sometimes you can go fast and not get a puncture, and sometimes you can go slow and get a puncture. It was a bit unpredictable as to when and how it would go.”

In that sense, do you want more dunes in Dakar?

“If I had to give constructive criticism, I’d stress this. It was constructive…well, I think it was a good Dakar. But there were some very fast stages, too, but not too much history, not much meaning, and maybe too many stones. But, well, even if there are stones, there should always be stones and sand in the Dakar, we know that.”

It was a very high level Dakar.

Yes, I said before the race that there would be 10 or 12 favorites to win, and you can see that was true.

About Nani Roma

“Well, I think he should be happy with that second place. On the other hand, like the whole Ford team, as well as Matthias (Ekström), Nani, Mitch (Gathrie) and myself, and of course all the copies, I think he will be a little disappointed because if we don’t have that fateful stage, it will match the three of us and the three of us This is probably a problem caused by the start of the order caused by the carrom of the previous stage, and in the first part of the marathon stage in the second week you can’t strategize because no one knows how much you’ve lost or where one is and where the other is. So that stage was decisive and the next day three Fords crashed at the same waypoint and Matthias also broke a ball joint in his suspension. It really was a disaster day and a bad day for the team.

Nasser finishes 6th in Dakar

“Nasser is guaranteed, we have to congratulate him. This is the Dakar and that’s why he is always the favorite before every Dakar. I have been with him since we started the Dakar. We had Peterhansel, we had Loeb and now we have new drivers, but Nasser always guarantees that he will fight to win.”