Silverstone, 2022. That was the moment a goal within touching distance for so long was finally grasped by Carlos Sainz. Fittingly, his first pole position of his career was duly followed by a first Formula 1 race win, in his 150th grand prix. Ferrari were back among the top contenders and Sainz, this time, was the leading man ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc. The Scuderia were a force at the front once more. Or so we thought. Despite producing a race-winning car, Ferrari failed to capitalise last year amid strategy and reliability clangers. Red Bull leapfrogged the calamitous prancing horse – and have not looked back. Now, Ferrari have not won since Austria last year, just a week after Sainz’s inaugural triumph. They are fourth in the Constructors’ Championship at the halfway stage this season. Sainz has not even finished on the podium. “I thought we’d be fighting for more podiums and wins but unfortunately it’s a very competitive team called Red Bull who are dominating,” Sainz tells The Independent. “It’s been a challenging season. All of us at Ferrari expected more from this year’s car and performance. We haven’t done the best job. “I’m happy with my own performance and the way I’m driving. But for one reason or another the results are not coming.” 2023 marks Sainz’s ninth-straight season in a sport he has devoted his life to. You can only wonder his thoughts as Max Verstappen – the driver he entered the sport alongside at Toro Rosso in 2015 – steamrolls to a third consecutive world championship at Red Bull. Via Renault, McLaren and now the scarlet red of Ferrari, Sainz’s progression through the ranks has been steady, if a bit slow. “I saw from very early on [as a junior] when I was winning that I was very good,” the 28-year-old says. “But I was naïve to believe that just by winning I was going to be an winning F1 driver. “I started to understand that everything needed to align. There needed to be a space for me in F1 and then I would need to be good enough to stay on. There’s always challenges.” An initial challenge, no doubt, was coping with the pressure which naturally came with being Carlos Sainz Jr. His father won the World Rally Championship twice and still competes in Extreme E at the age of 61. But Sainz Jr. is quick to point something out: his dad was not a pushy parent throughout his upbringing in Madrid. “My dad never got me into it, it was just me and something inside me that wanted to drive,” he insists. “It was just the genes, I’m not going to lie. “I happened to fall in love with F1 as a sport. It coincided with racing in go-karts and since the age of two, I’ve always been on top of a car.” His adoration for the sport is palpable. Time spent away from the paddock – whether it be golf, eating tapas or time with his family and dogs – is attuned to his return to the racetrack. Despite being the right side of 30, only three current drivers have completed more consecutive seasons in the sport than him. And unlike his first team-mate Verstappen – who despite his success is adamant he will not race deep into his 30s like Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton – Sainz is not interested by other competitions or opportunities at the moment. Not even the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which Ferrari won this year? “Yes I would, one day,” he says. “But I don’t think about it yet. Why? Because I’m so focused on F1.” Instead, while the ultimate dream is still attainable with a contract at Ferrari until the end of the 2024 season, Sainz will continue down the same road. And that road is currently one of recovery, which starts this weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix before the summer break. “I want to be a world champion one day,” he states. “I want to be winning more races. My brain is only thinking about that and I don’t even think about the other possibilities. Now, my target is to help the team to develop the car and go faster. That will allow me to fight for podiums and wins. “And that’s what I’m here at Ferrari for.” Carlos Sainz is a brand ambassador for Estrella Galicia 0.0. Read More Daniel Ricciardo is back - and this time he wants to go out on top F1 Juniors broadcast an admirable idea – but a reminder that all kids want to be is grown up Max Verstappen making Red Bull rivals ‘look like F2 cars’, says Toto Wolff F1 Academy announces radical team change for 2024 season How to win new fans for a growing sport and rival racing championship F1 2023 race schedule: When is the Belgian Grand Prix?

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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 27, 2023--

This has already been a huge summer of British sport, with more still to come. There’s the ongoing Women’s World Cup, for starters, with England among the contenders. There has already been Wimbledon, The Open has just finished and the Ashes’ fifth Test is now underway. But amid all this, there’s a world championship to be won right in the heart of London: the final races of season nine in Formula E, the all-electric motor racing series which culminates at the end of July. Ahead of a milestone campaign next year, the championship is still in growth mode, attracting fans and redefining itself in terms of on-track action, with alterations made across the board in terms of the racing on show, the coverage across the season and, importantly, the visibility in the lead-up to the showpiece event. This week, that means much of the capital city has been exposed to events and takeovers featuring electric cars, racing drivers and brands all associated with the teams and championships itself, raising awareness, interest and – hopefully – longer-term following of a credible, exciting championship. Achieving such awareness on a weekend where so much is happening elsewhere in sport – not least of all the Belgian Grand Prix in F1, the established powerhouse of motor racing – might not seem the easiest task, but FE has its own loyal following already and regularly sells out its races around the world. Back in January at the season opener, 40,000 packed into Mexico City’s famed Autodromo and, across Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 this weekend, the same number will visit ExCel London to watch the team and driver titles handed out – the latter quite possibly to a British driver on home soil, with Jake Dennis leading the standings. This year, Formula E has brought a brand new third-generation (Gen3) EV to the track, added another new city in Tokyo for next season and broken speed records on a consistent basis, while the profile of the 11 teams involved is impressive even to those with a casual knowledge of car manufacturers: they include Porsche, Maserati, Jaguar, NIO and Nissan, the latter of which staged a midweek takeover of Covent Garden, one of central London’s most well-known and busy locations. As Nissan’s driver Sacha Fenestraz told The Independent, the racing-specific alterations have made it a much more exciting affair for spectators, with the cars hitting speeds of up to 275km/h this season. “It’s a huge change. We’re up to 350kw [of energy], before it was 250 so you were quite limited. The championship is growing a lot, the car is more tricky to drive, it’s lighter and quicker and we have more power. It’s a big step forward in terms of racing which is a lot more interesting, a lot more fights on track. It’s been a great step to Gen3,” he said. In terms of his own year on-track, the Annecy-born rookie has been impressive in spells, particularly in qualifying, notching up his own milestones including his first points, pole position and top-five finishes. A decent showing in London could yet see him finish in the top ten for the campaign, though one of his drivers he’ll need to overtake to do so is his own Nissan teammate, Norman Nato. An enjoyable year overall comes down to two days and two races, while the impression left by one of the series’ biggest and boldest events has also left an impression. “It’s been a good season, up and down, we’ve been strong in qualifying and a couple of poles. It took me a bit of time to get used to energy management and racing strategy that is so different to normal combustion engines,” Fenestraz continued. “The race results have been a struggle but it’s the last race of the season and we’re looking forward to scoring points. “What’s been organised in central London is amazing, I was here as a reserve last year and it was like ‘wow’ - I was really surprised at the event. I wanted to be here racing and here I am. We’re enjoying it a lot and now it’s all about getting a good result.” In Covent Garden, fans had the chance not just to meet Fenestraz and take photos with a replica racecar, but also experience a few laps in a simulator and take each other on quite literally head-to-head on a racing game: a brainwave-powered headset which measures a person’s focus to produce on-track speed. Dismally - but perhaps not unexpectedly - after extracting a promise from a laughing Fenestraz to take his place at the ExCel on Saturday if this reporter could beat him, the French-Argentine won by almost a full lap. Mabye next year. Elsewhere, Formula E staged their own event on Carnaby Street, taking Dennis and fellow Brit Dan Ticktum to push the overarching message of sustainability, while Maserati and their partners hosted a panel on LGBTQ+ awareness and activisim. The entire week and weekend will see more of the same, with Formula E very much a sporting championship which pushes social improvement programmes away from the competition itself, be it climate, diversity or equality related. While the championship’s new CEO labels F1 “predictable” and “processional”, FE is showing itself as a far more exciting and changeable series. The finale weekend could show that again. And all the while, it continues to position itself as a bigger force for change too, from mobility electrification to social progress on multiple fronts. It’s a double hit of attractiveness to a younger, wider potential fanbase. Work yet remains to turn a growing series into a truly major one, but the interest and intent is certainly there if consistency can be maintained. And, just maybe, a British world champion celebrating on Sunday will help push that message a little wider. Read More How London provides ‘unique’ setting for Formula E’s enthralling finale Porsche extend Formula E deal - just in time for title fight finale British driver Jake Dennis closes in on Formula E world title with victory in Rome How London provides ‘unique’ setting for Formula E’s enthralling finale Porsche extend Formula E deal - just in time for title fight finale British driver Jake Dennis closes in on Formula E world title with victory in Rome

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