Story highlights
Carlos Sainz Jr. still owns his first car -- a Golf
Renault driver finished 10th in season opener
When you spend 21 weekends a year tearing around the world’s most famous race tracks, what you drive in your spare time can seem trivial.
That’s the opinion of Formula One driver Carlos Sainz Jr., anyway. And that’s why the Spaniard is happy driving his trusty Volkswagen Golf when he’s back home – the first car he ever owned.
“I still have my Golf,” the 23-year-old Renault driver tells CNN The Circuit.
“For a first car I couldn’t ask for much more than that kind of car.
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“My friends keep asking me, ‘Why don’t you buy a car now that you’re a Formula One driver?’ And I say, ‘Look, at the weekend I’m driving a Formula One car – it’s the fastest car ever.’
“Everything else feels really, really bad. I don’t mind – I’m happy with whatever car you give me.”
Sainz, whose father is a two-time rally world champion and won this year’s Dakar Rally, is in his fourth F1 season.
Still under contract with Red Bull, he joined Renault from Toro Rosso midway through last season after securing a career-high fourth place at the Singapore GP.
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At the curtain-raiser for the 2018 season in Melbrourne, Sainz finished 10th, three places behind teammate Nico Hulkenburg.
