Carlos Sainz Cenamor (Madrid, 62 years old) has seen them in all colors throughout his sporting and life career, but he continues to suffer setbacks like the first day. The Spanish driver, who was forced to abandon the Dakar Rally after heroically completing the second 1,000-kilometer special stage divided into two days, said he felt anger and frustration at not being able to continue the test due to the damage suffered in the safety cage. of your Ford Raptor T1+. A good crash on a cut dune last Sunday, when he had barely completed a third of the stage divided into two days, was the beginning of the end of the brief but intense participation of the current champion, four-time winner of the Touareg with four different brands.
“It is one of the great disappointments of my career, but in the end I have gray hair and I know that races are like that, sometimes they work out and other times they don’t,” commented Sainz after learning of the abandonment. The decision came after hours of deliberation by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), which strictly followed the safety regulations and noticed, as in the case of Laia Sanz and her Century in the first stage, a deformation in one of the steel bars of the chassis. Those millimeters of metal displacement broke the epic journey of more than 600 kilometers without a body or roof, a drive to the limit at more than 150 kilometers per hour through the sand with one hand, protecting yourself from the sun’s reflection with the other. Also the hand of Lucas Cruz, his co-pilot, holding the door in place like a wild boar after the destruction.
With great sadness, we have to say goodbye to @dakar this year. That’s racing, sometimes you have to live the most bitter part. We will soon return home to recover physically and mentally. Thank you all for the support.
With great sadness, we have to say goodbye to the @dakar… pic.twitter.com/KrKH12iwmP
— Carlos Sainz (@CSainz_oficial) January 6, 2025
“One of the roll bars was very slightly damaged. The team said that it was very easy to repair, but the FIA did not want to take any risks,” the Madrid native detailed to the Spanish media present in Saudi Arabia. Sainz did not imagine such a quick and cruel outcome to his new adventure with Ford and the M-Sport team, the same brand and structure that gave him his first opportunity in the World Rally Championship in 1987. “After being with all the enthusiasm of preparing the car and being there all year for it, going home in three days is a bucket of cold water,” he acknowledged. Although rally winner Nani Roma, his teammate, did have to say goodbye due to serious mechanical problems, in his case it was his own mistakes that condemned him.
“I don’t hide. It’s my mistake because, in the end, I went at 20km/h into a dune so deep that it was fast enough to capsize. “There is no need to look for excuses, this is something that has happened to me on other occasions and happens to all of us,” he reflected. In his historic chase with the Audi hybrid, he had a similar incident in 2023, and then finished the job with the German brand’s hybrid car in the last edition of the test. In his eighteenth participation in the rally, Sainz knew the complicated challenge that lay ahead. Since the time of the Finnish Ari Vatanen, with Peugeot in 1987 and Citröen in 1991, no brand new vehicle in a Dakar has managed to take victory. In the past, the Spaniard had lifted the winner’s trophy in 2010 (Volkswagen), 2018 (Peugeot) and 2020 (Mini).
“It makes me angry for Ford, for the team, for not being able to draw conclusions, test the car, have more experience,” Sainz delved from the Bisha bivouac, the first and last one he will step into this year in the sixth edition of the Dakar in Arabia. Saudi, where two of his four wins have come. The veteran pilot has back pain and will immediately travel to Madrid to undergo a medical check-up and verify that the hard impact against the sand has not caused any serious injury. “If I were in Madrid sitting on a sofa, it is clear that this would not happen to me,” he concluded sarcastically.
Those who know Sainz, however, know that he will still want to try at least one more time. Throughout his Dakar career, the Spaniard has never abandoned an official brand without first winning the event. He himself acknowledged at the beginning of the rally that he has a contract with Ford for 2026, another sign that if his physical condition allows it, he will be on the starting line once again. Although he has always said that at this point he takes it “match by match”, at the end of the day he still dreams of being the first grandfather to win the Dakar Rally.
