Carlos Sainz swaps kerbs for crests in Dakar shakedown with his father
Carlos Sainz has never hidden the itch to try rallying one day. This month, he got another proper scratch.
Williams’ Spaniard joined his father, rally royalty Carlos Sainz Sr, for a Ford-run pre-Dakar test in Zaragoza, climbing into the Ford Raptor T1+ that carried the elder Sainz to his fourth Dakar win in 2024. First, the younger Sainz took the navigator’s seat usually occupied by Lucas Cruz. Then came the fun part: Sainz Jr jumped behind the wheel, with his dad calling the notes.
There’s a poetry to it. One Sainz is in the thick of Formula 1’s 2025 fight with Williams; the other, at 63, remains Dakar-obsessed and still fast. Their worlds collided in a cloud of Spanish dust and Ford grit, one generation showing the other how to read a horizon at speed, the other showing how to thread a line with millimetric feel.
Sainz Sr’s 2025 Dakar ended early after a roll on Stage 2 damaged the roll cage, forcing withdrawal. The target now is a fifth crown in 2026, with the event scheduled for January 3–17 in Saudi Arabia. No one in that bivouac would bet against him turning up sharper.
For Sainz Jr, the outing is another sneak peek into a discipline he’s admired for years. He’s dabbled before — famously piloting the course car on the final stage of the 2018 Monte Carlo Rally — and the fascination clearly hasn’t faded. It’s easy to see why. The mental gymnastics of translating pacenotes into pace, the car dancing on loose surfaces, the focus… it’s a very different type of speed to F1, but the edges of the Venn diagram overlap.
The family theme isn’t new. Ferrari granted the Sainz duo a parting treat at Fiorano late last year: father and son sharing the F1-75, the car of Carlos Jr’s maiden win at Silverstone in 2022. The day ended with a beaming son, a proud father, and a line that stuck with Ferrari staff: “You have made a grandfather a very happy man today. This year, a 62-year-old grandfather tries a Ferrari and wins the Dakar!”
Back in the day job, Sainz heads into the second half of the season carrying momentum. He banked his first Williams podium in Baku and has settled quickly alongside Alex Albon as the Grove team pushes on with 2025 development. The Williams project is ambitious, and Sainz has slotted in as advertised: methodical, fast, and relentlessly constructive. You can almost feel the factory leaning in.
Ford, meanwhile, is quietly threading its motorsport storylines. The U.S. giant is gearing up for its 2026 technical partnership with Red Bull in F1 and has doubled down on Dakar with the Raptor programme that brought Sainz Sr’s 2024 triumph. The brand also added Daniel Ricciardo as its Global Racing Ambassador this year — the Australian confirming his retirement in the process, but not his absence.
In a note to Ford staff, Ricciardo explained the move with typical Ricciardo charm: he bought a Raptor in 2017 “before I even owned a home in the US. Priorities, am I right?” He’s leaning into the lifestyle side of the badge, and Ford is happy to let him. There’s already been a hint from team boss Laurent Mekies that Ricciardo could find his way back into the Red Bull orbit in some capacity in 2026 when the Ford partnership kicks in. The grid moves fast; the brands move faster.
If you’re looking for a through-line here, it’s this: motorsport is a family business — sometimes literally. The Sainzes keep crossing paths in different machinery but with the same competitive heartbeat. One weekend it’s kerbs and walls, the next it’s dunes and compass bearings. It all feeds the craft.
And if the son keeps sneaking off to rally tests between F1 podiums? Well, nobody’s complaining. The old man certainly isn’t.
