On the occasion of a special day, Carlos Sainz bid farewell to Ferrari on the Fiorano circuit, the legendary track on which all of the house's models have been tested for more than 50 years. Farewells with the family since Carlos Sainz Sr., double WRC world champion, was also there. Equipped with racing outfits, Sainz father and son took their places aboard the 2022 F1-75 for a few stints.
After a quick briefing, it was up to Carlos Sainz Sr., who drives with Ford in rally raids and defending champion on the Dakar, to make his debut in a Ferrari single-seater, some 3 years and 324 days after his son, who arrived in 2021 in Maranello. Although he had already driven a Formula 1 car around twenty years ago, the rally champion looked for his bearings by spinning before finding his rhythm. Carlos Sainz Jr. was invited to reclaim the car that gave him his first victory in Formula 1 during the British Grand Prix, at Silvertone, in 2022. What followed were a few father-son laps that looked like goodbye parade.
After 88 Grands Prix, four victories and 25 podiums, Carlos Sainz will join Williams in 2025. The announcement of Lewis Hamilton's arrival at the Scuderia at the beginning of February left him without a seat for the coming year before to be courted by several other teams. Which did not prevent him from performing throughout his last year with the Prancing Horse stable. And the Italians are paying it forward: for this high-end “starting party”, the Sainz duo went from modern to historic. After the F1-75, they went behind the wheel of a 735 LM which participated in the Mille Miglia and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A symbolic car since the model dates from 1955 and the Spanish driver's racing number is n°55. The day ended with a group photo with the team, with which the Sainz family wanted to include Charles Leclerc and Frédéric Vasseur.
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