Double world rally champion Carlos Sainz has announced he will retire from rallying at the end of this year. The 42-year-old has won a record-breaking 26 rallies for teams including Toyota, Ford, Subaru and Citroen, in addition to his titles in 1990 and 1992.
Sainz has been weighing up whether to retire from the sport or compete in a limited selection of European rallies in 2005 throughout the course of this year, but finally announced today that he will leave rallying to spend more time with his family. His decision could put the seal on the various moves of the driver market for next year, with Ford drivers Markko Martin and Francois Duval hotly tipped to fill the second seats at Peugeot and Citroen respectively.
“During the last month and after 16 years participating in the World Rally Championship I have decided to make a big change in my life in order to have a little more time to spend with my family,” he said on his official website. “During these last two years we have been able to win the Manufacturers’ World Rally Championship with Citroen and we have also been fighting for the podium in each rally, achieving the record of 26 victories in the last Rally of Argentina.
“After all this, I think it is a good moment for me to leave the World Rally Championship. It has been a extremely difficult decision, mainly because I still enjoy a lot every single rally. The fact that I am at the moment in the best team with the possibility of continuing during the next season, make this decision even more complicated.
“I would like to thank Citroen for these last two years of my career where I have been enjoying and at the same time working with the best team. It has been a great pleasure to work in such a professional and capable team where since the first engineer until the last mechanics the only objective is the victory. The Citroen team has shown that it is the best and I hope that in the future we can somhow continue to have some kind of relationship. I would like to thank as well the support and confidence that Mr. Satinet, Magda Salarich and Guy Frequelin have shown me and I hope I haven’t deceived them.
“I also want to thank the whole national and international press that have followed me all over the world with their support and collaboration throughout these years. I would also like to thank very specially the thousands of fans who have shown me their affection in all the countries. I would not like to end without thanking all the members of the team with whom I have been working, as well as to the manufactures that I have been racing with - Seat, Renault, Ford, Toyota, Lancia, Subaru and Citroen - and to my friends at Pirelli and Michelin, with whom I have shared many hours of effort and work.
“Of course a special mention as well to my sponsors, for their confidence during these years, specially to Telefónica and Repsol, and I would not like forget all my codrivers, Juanjo Lacalle, Antonio Boto, Luis Moya and Marc Martí that have been working with me throughout all these years.
"I would also like to thank The Spanish Federation, The Real Automobile Club of Catalunya, The Real Automobile Club of Spain and The Spanish Ministery of Sports that have always been next to me. And to finish up I would like to thank all my friends and my family specially my wife Reyes who has been and incredible support. I apologize if I forget somebody, that’s why I repeat thank you to everybody.”
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Originally Posted by dydzi
) got into such an amazing career.
