Carlos Sainz Jr has pinpointed the disparity in TV format between Formula 1 and rallying as the reason he didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps, while highlighting rallying’s popularity would “skyrocket” if coverage improved.
Sainz, son of two-time World Rally champion Carlos Sainz Sr, joined Williams team-mate Alex Albon and the team’s F1 Academy driver Lia Block on the Team Torque podcast ahead of this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix – with rallying discussed at length.
Block had initially pursued rallying, following in the footsteps of her late father Ken Block, before switching to single-seater racing last year. Curious about why Sainz hadn’t done the same, she asked why.
The answer? The ease of watching F1 races in Spain as a child compared to following rallying.
“Growing up, on TV in Spain, what you had was Fernando Alonso,” Sainz explained. “So, Fernando Alonso winning races for Renault and winning world championships. At that stage my dad was just retiring from the World Rally Championship. He had won his world titles 10 years before, so even before I was born. So World Rally was big, my dad was big, but it was not on TV. So I couldn’t fall in love with rallying.
