He also offers the benefit of his vast experience to younger drivers such as Cohete Suarez, Pepe Lopez and Jan Solans.
That gives Sainz a similar kind of role in rallying to which Marko fulfils in Formula 1 under the latter’s title of head of Red Bull’s driver development programme.
As a former part of that programme himself, racing for Toro Rosso before moving on to Renault, currently McLaren and next year Ferrari, Sainz jnr knows all about how Marko operates.
And with the 77-year-old Austrian known for being ruthless in his approach to drivers, Sainz jnr has suggested his father applies a rather more diplomatic stance to his dealings with the younger generation.
“But they also had a very high demand, and a very aggressive measuring stick, where you won or they kicked you out.
“When he talks to his sponsored ones, my father is demanding, but I see him understanding and guiding the driver well on the way to do it, compared to Marko.
“In the World Championship rallies nobody knows more. If he has helped me in something that was not his profession like F1, I don’t want to imagine if I had dedicated myself to rallying. He must be a good companion.”
Sainz jnr also admitted that when his father is competing in the Dakar Rally he gets “more nervous than with my races” – especially as he was too young to remember much of his father’s career having been born two years after his second and last World Championship.
He added: “The Dakar I live a lot. I would like to have lived through his stage of the World Championship knowing a little more, with more knowledge of rallies.
“I have very few images of my own. There have been more videos that I have seen and that makes me a little angry.”
Source: planetF1.com