Carlos Sainz Sr. has signed a contract with the Ford factory team and will race the Dakar rally in 2025 in the new Ford Ranger Raptor Ultimate racing SUV. The four-time Dakar winner will be one of the four drivers in this team – it is already known that his partner is Nani Roma, who has already completed this marathon in 2024 driving Ranger T1 +.
Later, the contracts of two other drivers will be officially confirmed – they are expected to be Swede Mattias Ekström (like Sainz, who competed for the Audi factory team) and the American Mitch Guthrie.
Carlos Sainz has a long relationship with Ford, because at the beginning of his career in world rallying, and this was at the end of the 80s, i.e. Almost forty years ago, he competed in Ford Sierra cars, although He later won major victories with the “Toyota” factory team.
But in the late 90s and then in the early 2000s, he returned to Ford twice and won several rallies in cars of this brand. Now Sainz is back as a factory driver for the Detroit-based company, and the first tests of the new Ranger Raptor have already begun. The car’s debut in combat conditions is scheduled for October, when 62-year-old Carlos Sainz and his teammates will take to the start of the Morocco Rally.
“I am very happy with this new Dakar-related project,” said Sainz. “I will be working with Ford for the fourth time, I am returning to the M-Sport team, it is managed by Malcolm Wilson, who I know very well, and this is great. The history of my relationship with Ford started back in 1987 – I think I was then the first driver on the factory team that Malcolm organized, and I am very proud of it. I’m excited to get behind the wheel of the Raptor, I’m ready to take on the challenge and try to achieve great things. One of the goals is to help Ford win the Dakar rally attack.
It remains to be seen whether Ford will be able to fulfill these ambitious plans. In any case, the company has already received the support of experienced professionals: Nani Roma completed 27 Dakars, Carlos Sainz – 17.
But it is interesting that fans are referring to the news about the contract of Carlos Sainz Sr. with Ford on social networks immediately seeing in this sign of his son’s transfer to the Red Bull Racing team, which is also preparing for a new period in its history, when its new technology This American company will is a partner.
However, similar assumptions have been made for a long time about the Audi project in Formula 1, and there is one thing: because Sainz Sr. has good relations. with this German company, it is likely that his son Carlos can sign. contract with their future factory team. But for now, Sainz Jr. continues to drive for Ferrari and would prefer not to talk about his future plans.
2024-05-11 07:36:00
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