Carlos Sainz’s schedule is still quite full, as he competes in the World Rally-Raid Championship and follows his son’s F1 career.
Therefore, the legend doesn’t have as much time to follow the World Rally Championship anymore, but he still has significant things to say about the state of the series.
Sainz is the second most experienced rally driver in WRC history, having driven in 196 WRC rallies , only behind the Finn, Jari-Matti Latvala, who has 210 WRC starts under his belt.
Thus, Sainz knows what he’s talking about when asked about the golden era of rallying.
“The best time in the WRC was, when we had Group A,” Sainz said without hesitation to Dirtfish.
“This was the time when all the national championships were using the same cars as the World Rally Championship,” Sainz remembers.
According to Sainz, the competition was intense and leveled at that time.
“We were coming to all countries, and the local guys could put pressure on the factory teams and provide surprises. It was a great time to have plenty of cars in the national championships joining the WRC; you could see young people jumping into those cars early and they were making strong impressions and measuring themselves against the top drivers,” Sainz recalled.
Sainz believes we should aim for the same now. That way, the best years of the World Rally Championship could be brought back.
“For me, that’s a good formula: having the same cars available in domestic series as those run in the WRC. Remember in the UK, there were Mark Higgins and Gwyndaf Evans; then you go to Italy, and it’s Franco Cunico; to France, and there are more cars at the same level,” Sainz suggested.
In the current thinking, only the best cars are in the main class of the WRC. Sainz thinks such an idea should be thrown away. He believes that the local media would be interested in rallying in a completely different way if local heroes had the chance to challenge the top WRC drivers.
