Sainz thought Australian Grand Prix return was “not going to happen” after surgery

Carlos Sainz Jnr feared he would not recover from his appendix surgery in time to compete in the Australian Grand Prix, which he won yesterday.

The Ferrari driver underwent laparoscopy on March 8th during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend. After being unable to compete in Jeddah, Sainz said he did everything possible to accelerate his recovery in order to avoid missing a second race.

“As soon as I got my appendix removed I went on the internet and started talking with professionals and said, ‘Okay, what helps to speed up recovery?’

“From that point onwards I started doing all the sorts of things that you can do to speed up recovery: The wounds, the scar tissue, what you can help to be faster on that, talking to other athletes, talking to other doctors in Spain, internationally. And then I put together a plan with my team.

“The reason why athletes recover faster is because you can dedicate 24 hours per day for seven days to recovery. And that’s exactly what I did.”

Sainz spent two hours a day in a hyperbaric chamber which is intended to accelerate healing by exposing wounds to higher concentrations of oxygen. He also used an Indiba radio frequency therapy machine, which is endorsed by his world rally champion father, to reduce his recovery time.

“I was programming my time in bed, my time to go for a walk, my time to eat, the kind of food that you have to recover,” he explained. “Just everything was centred around recovery to try to be ready for Australia.”

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But on the day he was due to fly out to Australia, one week on from his surgery, Sainz was still unsure he would be able to drive.

“When I was about to catch the flight to come to Australia, I was still in bed. Barely I could use my abdominal [muscles] to move. And I was like ‘this is not going to happen’.

“But I took the flight, and suddenly when I landed in Australia, the feeling was a lot better.”

Sainz discussed his recovery with Alexander Albon, who missed the Italian Grand Prix two years ago for the same reason, who told him to expect his recovery would accelerate.

“Every 24 hours, I was making a lot more progress than the first seven days, which is actually what all the doctors and all the professional people told me: Don’t worry, because the second week, every day is going to improve a lot more than the first week.

“Even Alex Albon told me this, I remember. So it just followed more or less what everyone told me and put together a good plan.”

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Sainz still felt the effects of his surgery during the Melbourne weekend, but found he was still able to drive.

“I guess my body is still a bit in protection mode. So everything I do is a bit more slow and a bit more cautious because obviously when they go through your abdominal [muscles], it is a weird feeling, as I said. But it’s what I said at the beginning of the weekend, without pain, even if I’m a bit in protection mode, I can drive no problem.

“Physically, I felt towards the end of the race just very stiff. Obviously, spending seven days in bed is, for your physical fitness and for all the muscles, it’s just not very healthy for an athlete. But only the last stint, I would say, I was a bit more stiff.

“Until the last stint, I was perfectly fine. Still with this weird feeling, but nothing that was slowing me down at all. I was confident with the car and pushing.”

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