Carlos Sainz's AMAZING Recovery | From Hospital Bed To Race Winner In JUST 16 d ays!

You're watching a Ferrari take the lead at the Grand Prix. The man who didn't race in the last round leads in round three. What a comeback, a Ferrari 1-2 headed by Carlos Sainz. The breaking news here, Carlos Sainz has an appendicitis. He will not therefore be taking part in this weekend. Oliver Behrmann, who was pole in Formula 2, is stepping up and he will be making his F1 debut in a Ferrari at the age of 18. Carlos Sainz underwent surgery. He's recovering well, recovered so well, in fact, he is here at this paddock. Welcome to the land down under. F1 is in Melbourne and the beautiful Albert Park is our backdrop for the Australian Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz is here, ready, raring to go, and hopefully he's going to be in that seat come Sunday as well. Let's hear now from Carlos Sainz. I feel ready, I've done as much as possible to recover and you cannot imagine the effort and the logistics and things that I've done to be fit for this race. Progress, I'm very happy with all the progress I've made. And now, as I said, it's time to jump in the car and see how I feel. We're looking now at Carlos Sainz. Yes, this circuit is already a challenge, but my word, what a challenge it's going to be, of course, just 10 days after being diagnosed with an appendicitis in Saudi Arabia. Well, he's done an incredible job just to be here, to be honest. I was talking to his dad. He also had appendicitis and he wasn't allowed to have keyhole surgery back in the day, so it took a month for him to recover. Carlos has recovered within a couple of weeks. The team have done what they can to kind of make the adjustments. They moved some things around in the seatbelt to adjust to the pressure points. But this is a learning for him. Like, he's got to go out there and he wants to explore and find out what it's going to feel like in that car to see if he can race this weekend. Of course he wants to and he feels good, but he won't know until he gets out on circuit. Carlos has been resting up in between the two races. He's not been able to be in the gym. He's not been in the simulator. He's just been trying to rest up and and get ready for this one. And it is these early laps where he'll get a feel and just see how uncomfortable it is when he's got the squeeze of all those G's, up to 5G coming through your your body and your core takes a lot of that. Here he is. I believe he's going to be getting out of the car here. It's a little ginger, shall I say. It's gingerly, isn't it? Yeah, that is a slow exit point. But like you said, it's the first time that he's been in the car. I think he did a 10 lap run or so to start the session. Then we obviously had the red flag and a bit of a break. But then he got back out there and he clocked up a lot more laps and he would have been pushing it. And he would have wanted to push his body to see where the limit was. I feel OK. Obviously, I've been tired after a full day of practice and not being 100% physically, but I felt like I had a good day. I managed to complete the whole program. If you would have told me a week ago that I could do the whole the whole practice without issues and all that, I would have been very happy. And I'm very happy for that. Obviously, I need a good night's sleep and a good recovery for tomorrow. Despite undoubtedly discomfort, he's back in that Ferrari. And I tell you what, P3 in FP3 up there as well in the FP2. I think P3 as well there. But Sainz not putting himself in danger, but jumping straight back in. Demonstrates how fit he is. Yeah, absolutely. I saw him this morning, spent a bit of time with him. He's running about, feels good again. I think he's got literally no doubt now for the rest of the weekend that he's going to be OK. He even said he's ready for a game of squash. And if he's OK with that, then he must be good enough to get into the car. Carlos Sainz is trying to come back and unseat the Red Bulls because Perez has gone to P2. Here's Sainz back to the front row of the field. He got within three tenths of a second. Yeah, P2 confirmed. It's been a tough couple of weeks, you know, a lot of days in bed waiting to this moment to see if I could be here today. And yeah, to make it to this weekend and then obviously to put it on the front row after leading through qualifying. I was almost, yeah, not believing it, no, especially after how tough it's been. But I'm very happy to be here. I'm very happy to be challenging the Red Bulls this weekend. I was a bit rusty at the beginning yesterday, but then I got up to speed and I could finally found the pace and feeling good with the car. For sure, it's quite incredible if you imagine that two weeks ago he was at the hospital at this stage. But I don't know, he did very, very well. But honestly, after the first session, he was speaking about the car and not anymore about the surgery in the stomach and into the team. Probably that we forgot a little bit the story, but for sure, it's mega if you consider that two weeks ago he was in the hospital. Yeah, I was visiting him on Saturday morning in the hospital. Every 24 hours, I feel better, more recovered, fitter. So, yeah, I'm feeling a step better again today. So I'm feeling positive about today. You've lined up alongside Max Verstappen. This Ferrari looks very, very quick. Can you take the fight to him today? Ah, well, you know, the first two races of the season Verstappen without Red Bull have given us 15, 20 seconds, you know, at the end of the race. So it's optimistic to think that suddenly in Melbourne we're going to beat them for the win. But it is true that this weekend we've looked stronger. And if I feel good in the race and I am OK physically, I will try my best to keep up with him and put him under pressure. And Formula One is underway in Melbourne. Good reaction time at the front of the field for Carlos Sainz, but he's partly blocked by Max Verstappen, who has the lead. These two started life in Formula One together at Toro Rosso, and they're about to go wheel to wheel. You're watching a Ferrari take the lead at the Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz, first opportunity offered up, first opportunity taken. And the man who didn't race in the last round leads in round three. It is smoke out of the back of Verstappen's car for the first time in two years. Reliability could be a question mark. Can you believe what we're seeing? The man who has finished every Grand Prix since he retired from this one in 2022 has smoke from the rear of the car. It's gone. It's gone. The man who was trying to win ten Grand Prix in a row for the second time in his Formula One career will not continue the run. A fire at the back of the car. The dreams of victory gone. Verstappen an issue with the brakes. Lando Carbine 1.7, 1.8. Verstappen is retiring with brakes on fire. Lando 1.9 behind. They're doing a mega job out there. What a performance. What a comeback. A Ferrari one-two headed by Carlos Sainz, who wins the Australian Grand Prix. Tell me we've got it. Yes, we have it. P1, baby. P1. Baby sharp. Good job, Carlos. This is amazing. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Unbelievable. What's up, John? Life is a rollercoaster, eh? It is. Life is incredible. Sometimes. Anyway. Thank you, Ricky. Thank you, Ferrari. Forza! It was a smooth operator. Oh, I forgot. It was a smooth operator. Well, he might not have remembered his own theme tune, but he remembered how to negotiate the turns of Albert Park. We finished with both Ferraris at the head of the field. The appendix is just one, not two. Yeah, maybe I'll put eight. See if there's another one out there. He's really had to dig deep for that one. You can see the emotion pouring off. Carlos Sainz, who is celebrating. You can tell him to get to the podium, but he wants a hug with the mechanics who have taken him there. What a story. What a comeback. What a drive. Cheered by his partner. Cheered by his team. His first win here in Australia. Only his third in his Formula One career. And they've earned a glug of this, especially if you're Carlos Sainz, who was tiptoeing into the paddock for round two. He was a spectator with all of us back in the car on the front row yesterday. Winner of the Grand Prix today. A comeback to remember. Yeah, I can just tell you I'm extremely happy. And not only because of these last two weeks, but because of how difficult this year has been so far. You know, as I said on the radio, a bit of a roller coaster. You start the year with the bad news of the non-renewal and a bit thinking, OK, what's next in my life? And then you prepare yourself, you go training, you do your winter testing. You arrive to the first race and boom, a good podium that sets the season going, gets the season going. And then suddenly the appendix, the unknown of when am I going to be back? Am I going to be back in full form? How long is it going to take me to get back up to speed and confident? And then suddenly you come back and win. And yeah, it just shows how beautiful is life in that sense. You know, what a roller coaster, but life is good sometimes.