Carlos Sainz — the smooth operator with a hard edge Premium

Carlos Sainz defies the odds, wins Australian Grand Prix after appendectomy, showcasing resilience and strategic brilliance in F1.

When Carlos Sainz was in hospital after having his appendix removed, the most natural thing for him — if he were the average human being — would have been to wallow in self-pity. 

The emergency surgery meant he would miss the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix — in the cut-throat world of Formula One, you never give another driver an even break, and Sainz was being forced to do just that. 

This turn of events, moreover, had followed a more significant displacement: the Spaniard had learnt before the season that seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton would replace him at Ferrari in 2025.

Out of work at the end of the year and out of commission for at least one Grand Prix, Sainz watched British teenager Oliver Bearman step into his car in Jeddah and drive it to seventh place on an extraordinary F1 debut. Most people, confronted by an equivalent set of circumstances, would have sunk back into their beds in a gloomy, woe-is-me mood.

Sainz, however, got to work. “As soon as I got my appendix removed, I went on the internet and started talking with professionals and said, ‘OK, what helps to speed up recovery?’,” he told reporters. 

“I started doing all the sort of things that you can do to speed up recovery, the wounds, the scar tissue, what you can help to be faster on that, talking to other athletes, talking to other doctors in Spain, internationally. And then I put together a plan with my team. 

“The reason why athletes recover faster is because you can dedicate 24 hours per day for seven days to recovery. And that’s exactly what I did.”