Carlos Sainz Jr.: one of the highest paid drivers in Formula 1 (in a family with a nose for business)

The victory of Carlos Sainzfrom which the junior must now be removed from the name, this Sunday at the Singapore Grand Prix demonstrated that the Ferrari he made no mistake in increasing his salary after the last renewal: around eight million euros per season, plus the possibility of reaching another seven million for his goals. A figure that makes him one of the seven highest paid drivers in the competition. Money that he began to invest among his family and his colleagues in the paddock and in other sports.

Three years ago, Sainz announced that he had become a shareholder of Team Acciona | Sainz XE, a sports racing team for a new form of competition: Xtreme E, in which electric off-road vehicles race around the planet in places affected by climate change. The competition was born from an idea of ​​its current director, Alejandro Agag, and the Acciona | Sainz XE Team, the current leaders, is named not only after its investors, but also after the man behind it: Carlos Sainz Sr.which together with Laia Sanz (and with the help of Mattias Ekstrom after the last accident suffered by Sainz Sr. in Dakkar, where he fractured two vertebrae) he was responsible for bringing the team to the top of the single championship. For the son it was a way to repay the support he has received throughout his life, especially considering that becoming a Formula 1 driver costs several million euros.

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A career that began in part thanks to one of father’s companies: the Carlos Sainz Karting, a karting circuit for veterans, founded by his father in 2000, which today hosts both the circuit and part of theactivity focused on the realization of events. The kart with which the Formula 1 driver won a Spanish championship when he was still a child is still located here.

These are not the only activities of his father, who for years also dedicated himself to the management of luxury gyms with his partners: his brother Antonio Sainz and, until the end of the last decade, Bruno Entrecanales, brother of José Manuel Entrecanales, president of Acciona. A year ago Sainz Sr. sold the gyms to the David Lloyd chain, which means that the English brand kept the two Sainz centers and one of its main assets: Blanca Sainz, the eldest daughter of the three-time Dakar champion. Until the sale, Blanca Sainz had been director and head of business development and currently holds the position of general manager.

Carlos Sainz Jr. also did not stand still in business. For years he has had a very special sponsor, Estrella Galicia, a brand linked to the family for generations. Ignacio Rivera, executive president of the brewery, told EFE a few months ago that the relationship with the Sainz family goes back a long time. Another Antonio Sainz, the young driver’s great-grandfather, was responsible for building the company’s first brewery in 1906, and they began supporting the driver “with the dream of him reaching Formula 1”, by virtue of this family relationship. It’s perhaps one of the reasons why Ferrari (which must approve all personal sponsorships of its drivers) has allowed brand and driver to remain close.

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For his part, Sainz has earned almost 20 times more in six years than when he started working at Toro Rosso, where he earned just 700,000 euros a year. This allowed him to consider other business ventures beyond his father’s team. His main move occurred at the beginning of September, with his entry into an investment fund called the Elite Performance Fund, endowed with 50 million euros contributed by over 70 international athletes. The main attractors of the fund are Carlos Sainz and his friend and companion paddock Lando Norris, the British McLaren driver (second in Singapore in a race where they demonstrated their friendship by working together to get the podium). Even footballers like the Frenchman Raphaël Varane, Manchester United defender. The fund aims to enable sportspeople to bring their expertise to venture capital firm Apex when investing in sports companies.

At the moment, the company has invested in several sports companies that have innovation as their flagship, from TMRW, dedicated to golf (a sport of which Sainz is a great fan) and created by players Tiger Woods And Rory McIlroy, at Playsight, a startup that aims to bring artificial intelligence to the creation and analysis of sports videos. An investment that comes at the best sporting moment for Sainz, who will now have to demonstrate that he knows how to combine business and competition. Something that his family has shown they can do for decades.

Source: Vanity Fair

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