P1 with Matt and Tommy - Ferrari's Carlos Sainz is on the pod! (Part One)

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

Today, we're joined by the Smooth Operator himself for the first of a two-part interview: it's Ferrari's Carlos Sainz!We hear about why he didn't follow in his Dad's rally driving footsteps, how he celebrated his first win and methods he turns to when things aren't going to plan. We also get stuck into more crucial questions: what's his hair care routine? Do the drivers see all the memes made about them? And is he sick of Smooth Operator yet? Join us tomorrow for Part Two with Carlos! You can grab our new merch here!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast. Today, myself and Tommy are joined by a newly recharged after the summer break. Carlos, welcome. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming on. You had a good break. Yes, pretty chilled. How was yours?

It was good. I cannot complain. I had a good three weeks off and ready to go again now. And now you're in a rather sunny and glorious Zandvo at the moment. Are you looking forward to this weekend? Yeah. I don't think it's going to be very sad. at the weekend. I think like every race this weekend there's going to be rain around.

So yeah, let's see. We've never run in the wet here with F1. All the weekends the last two years have been very sunny. Yeah, yeah. Might be a different sandboard from what we're used. We shall see. Now, we've got loads of questions in from fans and a few from ourselves as well. Don't worry, I'm not going to be asking you about upgrades on the car and things like that. It's more... Thank God. Also because there's no upgrades or stuff.

Yes. But it's more about gains and things. But it's more about getting to know a bit more about yourself and things that you get up to. So it's a mix of your questions and fans questions. Yeah, yeah. So we'll read out some usernames if it's a fan question. And if it's one of ours, we'll just ask the question. And if you don't like the question, we'll pretend it was one of the users now.

Deal. It's all good. Right, let's start with at FN-E-X-E. And it's quite a good one to start with, actually. How does your hair stay so damn perfect? even under a helmet as he brushes through the... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For audio listeners, he just brushed through his glorious hair.

I don't think my hair stays perfect under a helmet. I don't know why people think it looks good because when I look at it, when I jump out of the car, I'm like, what a disaster. I should have wear a cup or I should have done something to it. But in the moment, I don't think, obviously, about my hair is the last thing I think about. But people still think it looks good,

so I guess I'm lucky. on that. I don't know why because I don't do anything in particular. Do you not? I guess that would be yeah. We had genuinely think about 50% of the questions where what's your hair care routine. Okay, my hair care routine. I shampoo it once a day. That's it. Yeah. And then if I shower two or three times per day because I normally shower a lot. I'm very hygienic in that sense. I only shampoo it once though Even if it gets wet I only do once If I do it too much it gets too fluffy

So once a day Shower two to three times a day Normally always in the morning that's it Yeah that's when I do my shampoo Never conditioner Not conditioning Never never never Just shampoo once people say

He might do it twice three times Between practice sessions I don't have time to do twice Everyone's writing it down now Good This question is from us actually and it's do you see the F1 memes about yourself and edits on TikTok a lot? Because I always find it quite funny that you see all these memes and edits people are making

and I think a lot of people don't realize that drivers might actually see that. Yes, I do. And everyone who says they don't, they're lying. Everyone likes seeing, doesn't matter if it's a funny meme or a stupid meme or maybe a meme that is going against you, whatever. we all, somewhere or another catch to us. You know, it doesn't matter if it's social media or maybe a friend of us that has seen it and sends it to you

taking the piece about you. You know, it's like they, if it's a good meme or let's say more of the famous memes, they end up getting to you. So yeah, I do. My favorite ones, I'm not going to lie, are the ones where people laugh at me for being spaced out.

People, I don't know why there's a me. A lot of memes about me, like in press conferences and places of me being spaced out that I never realize, and I find them funny. So are you actually spaced out in the moment, or would you say you're just looking off into the distance? For me, in that moment, I just think, okay, I'm being serious and thinking about my staff, which is pretty normal. But it's true that maybe the face I put when I think about my stuff is very, like if I'm not there, like very spaced out. When I look at it, it makes me laugh, and I don't realize how. Sometimes dumb, I look. Next question comes from Sailor May.

Do you feel a lot of pressure from fans? Pressure in what sense? Expectation, perhaps, or I don't know, however you see that? No, I don't think the fans add pressure. I mean, the amount of pressure that we have from ourselves because we are so competitive the teams because obviously we want to perform for our team and for the 1,300 people that work in Ferrari.

That's so much pressure that I only see the fan base and supporters as an added support. It is true that sometimes, obviously, fans suffer with you, a bad result and you want to give them a good result. But I always see, most of the times, I only see good comments after a bad race or great comments after a good result. good race, no. I use them more as an encouragement, as a tool to motivate me, to encourage me.

And I sometimes even when you're a bit down, you've had a bad race, which I never really look at my comments, I go and see what these fans are saying. And I see the positive comments of encouragement, and it lifts you up a bit. And that's why I use it more as a motivator as a positive tool, more than actually pressure or feeling any kind of that. So I guess, you know, you just come off the back of the summer break. I'm sure you've seen a few fans already lingering around and whatnot. What kind of emotions did it feel to see them again after perhaps a break away? Because, of course, you go to a life where you're on a boat or whatever,

and you're chilling and you're away from that to now back into it again. You also see them in when you're in the boat and when I'm in Majorga, they're still fans. Especially nowadays, F1. It's booming, you know, and there's fans everywhere. Everyone knows about F1 now. there's fan base in every country there's fan base from every country

that are what happened to be in myroca, Sardinia, Corsica, you know, and you still bump into them. While I'm pretty sure four or five years ago, this didn't happen so it's changed quite a bit and I forgot your question.

It was just around how does it feel what the emotions like when you see when you get back. So yeah, we never really get to miss them because they're always there so fair enough. We don't really get to miss the funds because they're always there. They're there. Wherever we go, they're there.

It is true that probably a fund that comes to a race, it's a proper fund. It means they've spent quite a bit of money of their earnings or family money, whatever, in coming to a race and wanting to see you life. But probably people that we bump into restaurants, they want that cheeky selfie, you know, to maybe share with their friends, share with their family, like, how cool I am that. I've been in a restaurant with Carlos. instead of a proper fund that it's the whole fund that spends their monthly year earnings to come to a race and with them you need to be more careful you need to be more more more I always try and be more

give them more of my time more of my smile more of my thanks no behalf of me yeah a couple of her flicks to make sure they I show them appreciation for for coming to support us so you mentioned my restaurants actually before we get the next question to Tommy what is it like when you go into a restaurant to just go and eat do you kind of feel the eyes sometimes when you walk in and and then you're like right that table they know of us that table they know of us is that the kind of yes and it's again it's impossible not to know because you enter a place and immediately you see tables going like and and and and you just go what what um yeah it's it's like that you can use it with time and then obviously normally I have my friends family and everyone a bit

like noticing too and say carl's that table notice and they might come later I mean yeah yeah don't worry and you can use to it it's it's part of our lives now and it's and you know it's it's gonna happen and what can I say normally I'm gonna be more nice to you if you maybe wait until the end of dinner and and wait till I stand up and and you've seen that we've all finished dinner and I will happily take a picture, hug you, whatever you want. If you are interrupting dinner or you're a bit more uncomfortable. You're not getting a hug. You're not getting, normally getting, normally you get the good one special. Okay, you write that down everyone after dinner, not during. Or before. Or before. Or before. Before.

Before, it's dangerous because before you're hungry. You're hungry. take the picture and then the whole restaurant notices that you're there sometimes you go a bit incognito and yeah they take a picture with you so all the restaurant notices and then the whole restaurant's waiting yeah and take a picture the chefs everyone and then you're cook my food so come on if you wait until the end it's always better because it's no one this is this one's from dove dot block when and how did the smooth operator thing evolve So it started happening. It was 2019 British Wamprey.

I must have heard this song in the radio a couple of times that weekend. But I've heard it. I had heard it before. It was just a matter of, it's a typical song that they always play in restaurants, in chilling atmospheres, know that the song is always in the background. You never notice smooth operator playing. But it's true. you never play the radio and say,

oh, this is smooth operator, but it was playing in the battle in the magazine. Now I hear it all the time. And yeah, I remember I stuck the song in my head and that weekend I was singing it. Walking around the paddock, walking with my engineers doing the truck walk, I was singing in a smooth operator.

And I didn't know really the meaning of that song until after the race, I suddenly started singing it because I had a good race, I guess. I was happy, I sang it to my engineer at the time, Tom Staller. in McLaren and it caught a massive reaction once they played the radio and everything after F1 played the radio it got a very big reaction and since then I guess I was forever a smooth operator and you know it was going to be like that I'm interested to know actually at

this point are you sick of the song because of how much people have associated it with you no not yet also because if you look carefully I don't overuse it on the radio I've only used it two or three times ever in my career and I don't use it too much because I only save it to really days that maybe I find meaningful for me, no? That's why I don't, I try not to not to use it too much, but also I think TikTok did a remix with the song lately and and went viral So you've read downloaded TikTok now? No, no, no, this was like a three, four months ago and then the song was playing everywhere, but it was a remix. I actually really good remix that you should hear. And the song went viral without nothing to do with me, but it went viral again.

Wow. I had something to do with you, I'm sure. No, no. Honestly, the song was playing in every in every single video. Really? It was coming up on my ticket. Do you plan stuff like that? So you know, like how footballers maybe have that, oh, if I score a great goal, this is how I'm going to celebrate? Do you ever think, to Formula One drivers like yourself, ever think of, oh, if I have a good race today, I'm going to say this on the radio, or is it just completely like, You're just in the moment and something happens like that and you just can't predict what you're going to say. I think I've never planned it, never really plan anything.

The other day I met a young fan, a very 12-year-old kid. And the kid dedicated a rap to me. He met me and said, I practice raps and I come up with a rap for you and he played the rap. And she was like rapping. And then as he was leaving, he came to see me on a paddleboard.

He saw me from the distance and came to see me on a paddleboard. And when he left, he said, Carlos, when you win again, can you celebrate for me? Can you do a celebration that I can spot that it was and you can remember me? Say, yeah, go on. Tell me what do you want me to celebrate. He was like wrapping with steering wheel like this. So, okay, whenever I win, I'll do like this. We need to see that.

Well, we're going to wait. Not just because we want someone else to win, but just because we need to see that as well. 12-year-old kid, he was brave to have that kind of, I was surprised, like, to have the kind of play a rap for me, like, play, no, sing a rap for me. So he did it live as opposed to. He just improvised life to me. And then he went, he caught on his paddleboard, jumped on his paddleboard and said, when you win, I want you to do like, okay, cool. Oh, we will look out for that. That would be amazing. Next question comes from Kieran Daly. Why Formula One and not rallying like your father?

Why? Because when I was 10 years old, I was switching on the TV to watch Formula One races with my dad. My dad had just stopped racing at the time in 2004 in rallying. He retired from World Rally Championship. And I remember I was waking up at 3 a.m. to watch Australian Grand Prix here in Europe. And we both started following Formula One together. And then he said, okay, 2005, we went to Spanish Grand Prix. Barcelona. I met Fernando also, Michael Schumacher. I was lucky enough that my dad obviously had access to to the paddock and I remember meeting all my heroes at the time and going to Ferrari, going to

Reno. And when I came back from that trip in 2005, I was 10 years and a half. I told my dad, oh, I want to be like Fernando Lons. I want to be a Formula One driver. How do we do this? And we started the planning, we started go-karting, which got categories to do. Obviously people helped us also at the time and and my path just went F1. I love rallying, but I just never really got to see my dad winning in rallying or got to follow my dad in rallying. So I fell for former one at the time. I, when I was growing up, Michael Schumacher was my absolute idol. Like if he was at the race, I'd turn off the TV. What was your experience of meeting, Michael? You said that he was a hero of yours at the time as

well. Because I'm an absolute fanboy. I'd love to know what your experience was of meeting it. Whoa. I met him at a very young age, like anything between 10 and 13 years old, because I also raised for his karting team in Germany. I raised the German championship of KF3, and I met him once in Germany. And I just, I think I was just too naive to realize I was meeting Michael Schumacher. At the time, I was just a fanboy, but I was not like a... like getting too nervous when if I would have met him at 16 when I truly knew who Michael Schumacher was like when I knew the history what he had done when you're 1213 you're a bit like the boy of the rap you see you're just you're just there having a

laugh you know fun oh yeah great Michael Schmarke but I it was later when I realized how lucky I was to have met him was later when I realized how how important how huge he was you know and at the time I remember just my dad you're going to meet Michael Schumacher, shake his son, look at his face, be nice, yeah, okay? I was like so relaxed, like enjoying it more than anything else. Oh, amazing. Awesome.

Some Tucci O8 asks, what did you think when Ferrari offered you that first contract? Well, when they offered me that contract, we were in the middle of COVID, so we're all stuck at home. So I had a lot of time to think about it. Imagine being stuck at home for two months and that was when we did all the negotiation with Ferrari. And yeah, I had a lot of time to think about it and to this time I really have had time to think it's not like we were racing going race to race and leaving my management team to to hold the negotiations.

This time I could get involved and I could, I was actually my parents home and I, we were like all the family and knowing how. everything was developing and is it going to happen it's happening Monday at 9 a.m. I woke up in my pajamas and I signed the contract in my pajamas you know so everything happened so quickly that yeah it was it was great the feeling of I don't think I need to describe it it's the proudest moment of my career until then to to put a pen on paper you know and sign it telematically or by fax or how do you call it now?

They send, I sign it and I had to send it back. It was a bit weird, but COVID times, I guess. I bet it didn't feel real at that point, you know, doing that and being stuck and everyone's stuck at home and you'll, oh, I've just signed for Ferrari and off a going sort of thing. I couldn't celebrate it also. It was like, I couldn't tell anyone. I couldn't. It was like, it was weird, but it was good. I had, we had dinner that day with my whole family, just, it was a good news. in a bad moment like it was COVID,

and how bored everyone was and obviously with the bad news on the TV, we had like our very nice moment or a nice week, no, when that happened. Yeah, had a nice wholesome family moment, it sounds like. Speaking of celebrations, at the real Trun Spoon, how did you celebrate after Silverstone 2022? I actually had a lot of fun celebrating that

because I flew home and my friends were waiting for me. home but it was pure coincidence because I was I invited my six best friends to jump on an F-1 three-seater with me and it was the first experience for them in an F-1 car close to an F1 car but this was planned like a month before you had to book flights and you need to let them know who you are inviting and I remember going back home that day like super happy for my first F1 win but even happier because I actually had my friends coming to meet me Bologna airport I was going to pick them up and we were all going to go together to

the next day to run drive them in a Formula One car after I had just won my first Formula One race with Ferrari then I took them to Montana to Cavalino to all the typical restaurants I showed them the museum showed them a factory tour so it was like a perfect celebration or my style of perfect celebration that I I was looking forward to and it was coincidental yeah it's almost like it was fate if if you believe in that maybe you do that is interesting if not I wouldn't have done anything I would just fly in my home yeah what was what was your friend's reaction to going in the three-seater well you can not imagine it was so cool yeah

it was really really cool because it is the first time that you can show the people that obviously care about you and that they follow you every day on TV to really let them know what you are actually doing and how much much more difficult everything is than what they see on TV. How much fast everything happens, how much vibrations there is in a car, how low you are to the ground. And then I was telling them, okay, now imagine this, but with 20 cars around you. It's not a single push lap, you know, like imagine this, but with 20 cars around you.

And imagine this, but twice the speed, because a three-seater is not an F1 car. And we had a lot of fun, and I think since then, obviously, a level of respect and appreciation to, for what I do, I also took my manager. my trainer Rupert and my family, my parents. So yeah, it was a good opportunity. I guess that's the only way, as you say, for your friends, your family to actually understand. Because you can say, oh yeah, it's really fast.

My dad understands, obviously. Of course, yeah. Also because he drove on one once. But obviously my mom, imagine. She's probably now even more worried after. Probably. Speaking of Stowe's 22, New Romantics asked excluding Zosso in 2022.

What's your favorite race of your career? Ooh, my favorite race of my career. I would say Brazil 2019, my first podium at the time. I really did my best ever race there. I did honestly, if I look back at that race, I, you know, we always are very self-critical and I always find things that I could have, better. Brazil 2019, that's like my, I don't know how you call it, but my best racing of one until

now for sure. Did you start last? I started last. And I came back through the field, but I came back like on Merritt. And I remember in practice we were actually not that quick, but for some reason that day I woke up and I was really, really quick. And I made like really bold moves. I remember the move from Pettus, Kiwiad. I did a few midfield. moves that maybe like always at the time went a bit undercover because I remember we were not on TV much at the time yeah I remember that we always like where's Carlos exactly yeah that was such a thing wasn't it in 2019 it was a meme that they never showed you exactly I was like they were calling me the ghost or something

but they were never show and I was doing like especially that year in McLaren I felt really confident on the brakes with that car and I did my best overtakings I've been done in those two years in McLaren for sure because of how I felt with a car with the breaks. And I remember I was going to uncover it. I was like, no one's seen these. Yeah. I've just done the race highlights. Did I even take part? Like it was so weird. Because I remember all of us, as fans were like, Carlos is making 10 positions up and we've not seen one of the overtakes. Exactly. So yeah, we were feeling your pain as well because we wanted to see that. I'd say that race. Yeah, I'll take that race. A question from that actually. So you said

that, you know, that's probably the closest thing to perfection for a race for you. Are there many races that you would say where you went, I have absolutely given everything here, and yet no one's really going to know because I've finished sixth or whatever. Like, do you, is there a lot of those, would you say? Especially when you're part of the midfield, you have that feeling. And I was in the midfield many, many, many, many, many years. I was in the midfield. Even my first year in Ferrari, we were in the midfield, no, we were finished third, but we were more part of the midfield than part of Mercedes and Red Bull. And those years, It were tough because you felt like you drove like if you could have won that race,

but you finish eight, you finish seventh, six, maybe on a good day, top five, perfect day, a podium. But yeah, you never felt full, full, like full crate or full attention, no, and when the drives felt, some of them felt really good. And I feel for all the other drivers in the midfield now. and all the drivers at the time in the midfield with me because it was like we were like 8 to 10 drivers within 2 tenths of a second and it was all a battle to finish 7th behind Mercedes Ferrari and Redd

and who caught 7th you knew that that guy that weekend had done a really good weekend that was the winner of Formula 1.5 we used to call it so yeah exactly it was because we were finishing like one lap behind those guys and I remember that we had a good healthy competition between us and whoever was winning that 1.5 you knew he had a solid weekend. That's interesting. Did you find it back then quite frustrating, I suppose, that you execute everything, you finish 7th Formula 1.5 win or whatever and yet the other three teams

are half a lap ahead or whatever? Not because towards the end of the year people gave credit to it. I remember I won that 1.5 battle in 1920 also. probably, and people really did give credit to that and gave me credit for it later in the year. There was some individual drives that yes, but when people looked at the overall end of the year performance, I did feel like I caught the credit at the time I deserved. Nice. Question from Pitt with me. How did the nickname Chili come to be? I don't have an exact explanation or idea of how it came, but my conclusion, is that since I'm 16, 17, we were 18 years old

going out with my friends and just hanging around them. I think whenever they were having a couple of extra beers, my nickname or my name were deviated from Carlos to Charlie to Charlie to Chile. Because I remember them calling me Charles or Charlie. And I think it went from Carlos to Charles to Charlie to Chile. So it just a bit of a... Yeah. So it has nothing to do with how spicy I might be

or me liking spicy food. There's nothing about that. It's just some of your friends slurring potentially. It's lowering, exactly. If your nickname was Charles at Ferrari, that would be very confusing. My sister calls me Charles sometimes. Oh, really?

What? So we've asked this question to every F1 driver and you can take it as serious or funny as you like. What's one rule that you do? change an F1 and why like a regulation or that I change one rule why this is a difficult one I'm sure there's one but I think once a year we should all go to Macau and racing F3 or Macau wow that would be crazy plenty of one drivers all there how how close do you genuinely think the whole grid would be if it was a Macau spec cars

I think in a Macau is different Macau is it could be more difference it's not Or a normal track. Normal track, if we all go tomorrow to Barcelona, let's say, and we do a qualifying lab. In normal dry conditions, six sets of new soft like we always have, I don't think there's more than half a second between us. Exactly what concept, half second, something like that. And that's one given day.

We go next weekend to Silverstone and the guy that is half a second off in unqualified P20 Barcelona might be P3 before because he's had a much better day and might be towards the top of the field and another one might have a bad day and be half a second off but not more than half a second six tenths maximum do you have circuits that you're particularly good at or is it so reliant on like a car setup that you just have to feel good in the car for it to all come together or is it a bit of back i've had both examples i had examples where i know i have three or four tracks per year that I'm going to be very good at and I know those are my good hunting round tracks but then I've also gone to circuits that I normally very slow and then one year

not very slow sorry I'm not very slow not great or my past statistics say I'm not great at but then one year with a good setup you feel a bit better you find a couple of tricks and you put it in a much better place than you were before Same happens with the good tracks. Sometimes you, for some reason, you go to a truck, you feel something weird in the car, and you just maybe you're not having as good time as you should have. So I guess with that, obviously, sometimes the setup's not right and a mistake might happen. How do you kind of process, say you go into a gravel trap or whatever, you have a crash,

and then you come back after a practice session? How do you bounce back from that personally? Because I know I'm sure there are many different ways of doing that. Normally I try to think about the number of laps that I've done that I haven't put it on a gravel trap. So it's one out of how many laps have I done in Formula One. And you see the chances of me doing that again or doing a mistake like that are one in a million from now. Peaceful I've done it now. And then you realize that it's a mistake that can happen.

You're an F1, you're pushing, you're pushing the limits. It is a mistake, analyze, understand, move on, because the chances of you doing it again are so small that it's not worth dwelling on it and killing yourself for it. It's very easy to massacrate yourself, telling yourself you are stupid. Like your friend Charles. Yeah, it's very easy, no, to tell you that I'm so stupid. But in the reality is that mistakes are going to happen and we all do them. And yeah, you just need to do.

to analyse and recover from him. That's fascinating to hear. Right then, I hope you've enjoyed this whopping half an hour with Carlos Sines and you best believe we've got another half an hour coming tomorrow. So stay tuned, peel your ears, subscribe wherever you are in this audio world to remind you to come back here tomorrow for another whopping 30 minutes of Carlos Sines and P1. See you there. Stack production and part of the ACAST's creator network.