With Formula One descending on southern Florida for the Miami Grand Prix this weekend, we were bound to get some random star-studded collabs in the sun. A meet-up that definitely falls under ‘random’ occurred thanks to Duracell, who brought two of their brand ambassadors — F1’s Carlos Sainz and the NFL’s Tom Brady — together for a clash of two worlds.
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One drives a car. The other threw a football. And both love golf. Brady, who said he has a lifetime supply of batteries after starring in a Super Bowl commercial for Duracell, was pitted in a golf competition against Sainz.
Ahead of the 2025 F1 campaign, the Spaniard switched from Ferrari to Williams Racing, of which Brady is a huge fan. Sainz has four F1 race wins compared to Tom Brady’s seven Super Bowl rings. Sainz, obviously, isn’t the GOAT of his sport like Brady is, but he is 17 years younger. And he might just be able to swing a golf club better than the minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Besides the mini-competition, which was won by Sainz, the pair also shared stories about their mentality toward sport. Sainz said he tries to recreate the conditions of previous successes in his mind.
“I try and learn from my good weekends or my good laps, my good starts, my good overtakes,” stated the 30-year-old F1 driver.
“I always try to remember how I felt so I can put myself back into that good state. I’ll feel calmer, or I’ll feel more nervous, depending on the pressure of that weekend and the buildup, and whether I’ve been good [or] I’ve been bad. And I always try to chase this feeling,” added Sainz.
Brady rightly pointed out that in sports like golf and F1, a calmer approach is more conducive to success. While in football, the more energetic you are, the better. He broke down for Sainz how his “competitive stamina” made him a unique player in the NFL.
“I was part psychopath. I treated every day like it was the biggest day, like it was the Super Bowl. I treated practice like it was the Super Bowl… My competitiveness on a daily basis to win was max effort all the time,” Brady explained.
“There’s a great word that I call it: ‘competitive stamina’. You’re either competing or you’re not. And to me, the competition was every day. I would treat a qualifying day like it’s a race,” the legend added.
Brady went on to say that Michael Jordan was his childhood idol. And why was that? Because he was the most competitive guy in the league.
In fact, Jordan might be the only athlete ever who can challenge Brady in terms of ultra-competitiveness. Sainz was certainly in awe, as he agreed with Brady’s self-evaluation as a “psychopath”. But in a good way, of course.
Brady’s need to win has clearly dissipated some since his second and final NFL retirement in 2022. TB12 kept it cool during the little golf chipping competition with Sainz.
And in the end, you could tell it was the happily retired Tom who turned up at the event because he still had a smile on his face after Sainz beat him on the last shot.
