Being adored at his home round of the World Rally Championship is not a new experience for Dani Sordo.
In 2015, the story was the same. Driving for Hyundai, the Spaniard was locked in on chasing another Rally Spain podium – and achieved it.
In the crowd, watching him in awe, was an eight-year-old child who Sordo’s now come to know, and Spain certainly knows. The rest of the world is about to, too.
Already a Red Bull athlete and already a national champion with a Rally2 when he was just 17 years old, Gil Membrado’s a name to keep on your radar. And he’s been to a similar rallying school to Kalle Rovanperä and Oliver Solberg.
But first, back to 2015 and one of the moments that inspired this young super talent.
“When I was little, I always saw Dani in the Hyundai team,” Membrado tells DirtFish. “And I was going to WRC here in Spain, Rally RACC. Now we don’t have it, but yeah, that was a good era. And I always thought that one day I will be like Dani, like a WRC driver in a top level, in a top car.
Membrado was among the Spanish crowds cheering on Sordo in 2015
“And I remember that the crowd of Spain was like, ‘oh, Dani, Dani, Dani, a picture!’ That is in my mind for like 10 years.
“Rallying all came from my father,” the now 18-year-old adds. “He was a rally driver since he was young, not like me with 18 years, but at 20. And he was driving here in Catalonia, in Spain, but more like a hobby, not like a professional driver. And he was 10 times champion of the National Catalonian Rally Championship.”
It wasn’t love at first sight, however. Membrado wasn’t initially obsessed with rallying. Which at first seems odd, considering how cool his dad’s cars were.
“I remember he was driving with [Renault] Maxi Mégane, an ex-Loeb one. Also, he drove a Clio Super 1600. He always had good ones! But the problem was that I didn’t like rallying in the beginning. I don’t know why, maybe because of the noise or maybe because my father was driving and I was worried about that. But in the beginning I didn’t like it.
“I drove some karting in my early years, four or five years old, but then I had a really long period without driving because I didn’t like that, rallying or karting. And I had vacation, years without driving.
The younster's early driving was done in karts
“As I got older I wanted to hear that noise that in the beginning I didn’t like. And that is how I started. I started driving in karting in a campus of Fernando Alonso, the F1 driver, in Asturias, in his hometown, and it all started there. I did some karting, asphalt karting, but suddenly I noticed that I didn’t like that circuit stuff and karting.
“So I moved to the same, let’s say, category but with gravel, a cross car. And then I started driving at 12 years old, the cross car. And that was like the beginning of the rally era or the cross car era, at 12. At 13 I jumped to my world, my new life that was rallying. At 13 years I did my first rally.”
It’s likely no surprise to you that a driver born in 2007 who’s already become Spanish Gravel champion got started early. But it’s not exactly easy to compete at 13… unless you go to Latvia.
Membrado’s very first rally was the country’s ERC event in 2021 with a Peugeot 208 R2, before he moved up to Ford Fiesta Rally4 power the following year.
“It’s a little bit the line of Oliver and Kalle,” he says. “They started there in Latvia because in their own country they couldn’t drive, and then they jumped to a big car in their country, or in the WRC like Kalle.
“But yeah, that’s a little bit the line, and these past two past years, I drove a Rally2, a Fiesta, here in the Spanish championship.”
At 17 years old, Membrado took Fiesta Rally2 to Spanish gravel title - and he enjoys steering from the rear
It was a dream season; one Membrado describes as “a 10 out of 10, because we won almost all the rallies and it was really, really nice with the Fiesta Rally2 car and with the Hankook tires”.
But he still wasn’t legally old enough to drive on the public roads, even in a Rally2 car.
“That’s a good thing to explain to the DirtFish audience because it was really difficult to do it,” he smiles. “Because under 18 here in Spain, we don’t have the driving license. So we won without the driving license and we had to do the pacenotes [on recce with] three inside the car.
“It was a car but it was like a van with three seats in the front. I was seated in the middle and the co-driver on the right side. And also, going in the liaison section, between stage and stage, the co-driver [Alejandro López] had to drive the car.”
Demonstrating how determined he is to succeed going forwards, in this scenario Membrado enjoys doing the co-drivers’ job on the roadbook too.
Teamwork proved crucial to success, with Membrado unable to drive on road sections or recce
“I like to do it because you see the other side, the other part, of the inside of the rally car,” he reasons. “And yeah, it’s also difficult. You have a time to arrive, a section or liaison to follow. And I think it’s also good to know how it works for the future.
“And also him, the co-driver, had to do my work, warm up a little bit the car and the tires before arriving to the stage. So yeah, it was pretty difficult.”
There’ll be no such concerns next year at least, with Membrado setting his sights on something bigger.
“We are looking to close a really good program and maybe we will be in the WRC,” he says. “Now I don’t know the category but I think we will be in the WRC and that’s a dream for me.
“When I’m a kid, I wanted to be there with the big drivers, with the top drivers and also it’s really good to be in the national championship but I think my future is in the WRC. And we also have time to go back to the national championship. We never know when this option of going to the WRC will appear, and now we have it, so we have to take it.”
He’s not your average Spanish driver though in terms of how he drives the car. While the accepted driving style in France and Spain is to use the front of the car, Membrado says he’s “more Estonian” and likes driving from the rear.
Makes sense, given where he started rallying. But it also has its benefits for the future.
“WRC is almost full of gravel or snow,” he smiles, “so I think it’s also good.”
With backing from Red Bull and a two-time world champion as a mentor, Membrado is going places
There’s nothing to suggest Membrado won’t be a success. Age is the obvious thing on his side, but he’s clever too. And has the right contacts.
“I have a good relation with Carlos [Sainz] and with Dani also, with both,” he reveals.
“I speak with Carlos every week. He’s trying to help with all kinds of things inside the car, outside the car; inside with the setup like doing a little bit of teacher about rallying. And also outside because I think Carlos is very good at driving, very good speaking with the engineers, but also outside the car speaking with the media, he’s also really, really good. So I think I can learn a lot of things from obviously a two-time world champion.”
I learned a lot of things from Membrado, though. His was a name I’d seen conquering events in Spain, but I knew nothing of his character. What I discovered is he’s an affable, analytical character with a far wiser head than his young shoulders would suggest.
He says becoming World Rally champion is his dream and the “big target” of his career. I’ve a funny feeling he’ll have that in common with his hero Sainz in the not too distant future.
