The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix marked Carlos Sainz Jr.’s last with Scuderia Ferrari, as he prepares to move over to Williams to make room for a little-known driver by the name of Lewis Hamilton.
Obviously, Ferrari couldn’t let the Spaniard go without a celebration – not after he racked up four wins for the team over four years and helped it to four consecutive podium spots in the Constructors’ championship.
As a send-off, then, Ferrari let Sainz loose around its Fiorano test track in the SF-75, the team’s 2022 F1 car in which he claimed his first F1 win. And for a dash of extra wholesomeness, he brought along his dad, 62-year-old Carlos Sainz Sr., who Ferrari let have a go in another SF-75 that happened to be there.
Now, you’re no doubt aware that Sainz Sr. isn’t just any 62-year-old Spanish man. He’s one of the most prolific and successful loose-surface racing drivers of all time, winning two World Rally Championships with Toyota in 1990 and 1992. And in case that wasn’t enough, he’s triumphed in the gruelling Dakar Rally no fewer than four times, most recently with Audi this year, at an age when most people would be thinking about booking one of those Saga cruises.
Though he comes from a background of slithering through forests and launching off building-sized sand dunes, not hammering high-downforce open-wheelers around ultra-modern racetracks, the elder Sainz was apparently able to get up to speed pretty quickly. Despite an early spin, he was pretty quickly posting consistent times around Fiorano, Ferrari said.
Father and son then went out for some formation laps, with Sainz Jr’s now former teammate, Charles Leclerc, watching on. Shut up, you’re crying.
Carlos Sainz Jr. drives the SF-75 at the 2022 Brazilian GP / XPB images
The day was topped off with the duo getting to drive a 1955 735 LM, a car Ferrari raced in the Mille Miglia and 24 Hours of Le Mans that now belongs to its Classiche department. Because why the heck not?
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