(Motorsport-Total.com) – They represent the current men’s and women’s football world champions, the current European football champion, the current Olympic football champion, the last two MotoGP world champions, or the last Grand Slam winner of the Australian and US Open in tennis: Spain is a true world power in many sports and has been producing top athletes for many years.
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Meanwhile, the Iberian state with 48 million inhabitants has only a little more than half the population of Germany. “I believe we are incredibly lucky in Spain,” says Carlos Sainz after the recent triumph at the 2026 Football World Cup – only to then distance himself once again from the term luck.
“If you have so many athletes in so many disciplines who are so good, it can’t be luck for such a relatively small country,” he emphasizes. “It is probably more because we invest well in sports infrastructure.”
“Even if you go to the smallest village in Spain, you still see a 25-meter swimming pool, a 400-meter running track, a football field, a basketball court, and all kinds of Olympic facilities. And that in the smallest village you can imagine,” he points out.
“I believe we are a country that invests a lot in sports from an early age, and in the end, it pays off.” As a Spaniard, it makes him very proud to see “that such a relatively small country is so well represented in every kind of discipline – from motorsport to MotoGP, tennis, football, both men and women.”
Sainz dreams of success for Spain
In Formula 1, however, Spain has been waiting for a big breakthrough for some time. Although Sainz occasionally achieved success with Ferrari, the last world titles of Fernando Alonso are already 20 years ago, while he is currently struggling with Aston Martin at the back of the field.
Alonso also managed back then to make Spaniards Formula 1 fans, after the sport was previously not much in the spotlight there. Sainz would gladly repeat the successes of his role model. “I can only say that it must be an incredible feeling,” he says.
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“I had a little personal experience with it when I gave Spain a win in Formula 1. When I heard the Spanish national anthem, that was probably the most emotional moment of my career – standing at the top of the podium and hearing your anthem while your flag hangs behind you. I think that is exactly what every driver and every athlete dreams of.”
Alonso hopes for third title
Alonso himself also says it would “mean a lot” to him if he could repeat the success of back then. “At the end of the day, you want to share these moments with your country, your fans, your friends, your mechanics, and your team,” he says.
“There is always this feeling of being alone in the car. From the starting grid, all the mechanics walk away, you drive the formation lap and are completely on your own,” he notes.
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“When you then win a race or have success, the first feeling and the first moment on the podium with the entire team down there comes, and you start celebrating with them. Then you take the photo in the pit lane, and then the whole process follows where you start sharing the joy of the victory.”
“It’s the same with your country and the same with the fans,” says Alonso. “This year in Barcelona, there were 100,000 fans. At the fan forum, there were five or six thousand fans, and they were all dressed in green. They cheered us on at 35 degrees, and they went there even though they knew we would finish 21st and 22nd. They didn’t care.”
“They just went there because they wanted to support us – because if you win one day, they want to celebrate with you. That is this unstoppable hope. If you are able to win and have success, then that moment and celebrating with them and with your country is something magical.”
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