In 2016, Carlos Sainz went viral for an answer during a press conference. As F1’s top drivers revealed the luxury cars they owned — like a Porsche, a Lambo or a Ferrari F40 — a bored-looking Sainz hilariously said, “I have a Golf.”
Well, that famed, memeified Volkswagen Golf has now made an appearance after years. In a recent vlog on his YouTube channel, Sainz took the interviewer around in his $13.5k car. “12 years later, we’re back with the Golf,” the Williams driver said.
When it was first released in 1976, the Mk1 Volkswagen Golf GTI was celebrated as the first ‘hot hatch’. It featured a 1.6-liter engine producing 108 horsepower. And it could go from 0 to 60 mph in about nine seconds and attain a top speed of over 113 mph.
In its eighth generation now, the Golf still appears to be the choice of many European celebrities, from soccer players to religious figures. Even Kate Middleton used to drive one before she became the Princess of Wales! But why is Sainz, with horsepower monsters at his disposal, still holding onto the humble Golf?
It’s often a ‘boy-racer’s’ first car in Europe, and the Golf was Sainz’s first too. The F1 driver’s parents got the Mk6 Golf GTI for him when he was 18, in 2012. However, “It’s been sitting in a garage for five or six years without moving,” Sainz added.
Clearly, he had to put in significant work to get the Golf road-ready before taking it out for a spin. And there was never a chance he would part ways with the car despite having many supercars in his garage.
His collection includes a Mercedes AMG GT, 2021 Ferrari Roma, 2019 McLaren 600LT Spider, and a custom Ferrari 812 Competizione, which he received as a parting gift from the Italian team in 2023. However, the Golf holds deep sentimental value for him.
It was, after all, the first car he ever owned. “I’ve been in Formula 1 for eight or nine years, and as my own car, I have the one my parents gave me when I was 18 — a Golf,” he added. But why did Sainz keep the car hidden away for so long?
Carlos bringing back his iconic Golf (which has been sitting in his garage for 5 or 6 years) pic.twitter.com/8JzojRoPGk
— yoyo (@williamssainz) March 30, 2025
While the Williams ace never gave a reason for keeping the Golf under wraps for so many years, it could be due to his commitments to the various teams he has driven for over the years.
Sainz has represented Renault, McLaren, and Ferrari — all of whom provided him with road cars that he was required to drive for sponsorship reasons. He has built quite the collection, owning a McLaren 720S and a Bentley, among others. And among them stood the emotionally priceless Golf.
Carlos Sainz has been working with Ferrari on a custom car for two years, and it has finally arrived.
• Ferrari 812 Competizione
• 830 horsepower
• 211 mph top speedIt’s quite an upgrade from his current car: a Volkswagen Golf gifted by his parents for his 18th birthday. pic.twitter.com/DC7T8PzKdJ
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) January 28, 2023
While he never parted with the Golf, and possibly never will, he may have been too busy revving up the other high-performance machines in his garage.
But then, he took the old VW out again in a nostalgia-laced drive. It is something petrolheads would identify with — driving, the spiritual experience of it, is not just about horsepower, after all.
