Carlos Sainz Jr

About

Carlos Sainz Jr. is a Spanish Formula One racing driver currently racing for Scuderia Ferrari. He won the Formula Renault 3.5 in 2014 with DAMS before moving to Formula One with Scuderia Torro Rosso. During a relatively shorter stay in Formula One Sainz has already driven for some marque names for the sport in Renault, Mclaren, and now Scuderia Ferrari.

Biography

Born on 1 October 1994 in Madrid, Sainz Jr. is the son of double world rally champion Carlos Sainz and nephew of rally driver Antonio Sainz. Sainz began his career in karting at the early age of 6 and idolizes Fernando Alonso in Formula One.

Racing Career

Junior Categories

Karting

Sainz began his career in karting at the age of 6. In 2008 he won the Asia-Pacific KF3 title as well as finishing runner-up in the Spanish Championship. In 2009, he was runner-up in the European KF3 Championship.

Formula 3 European Championship

In 2012, Sainz competed in both British as well as European F3 championships where he won 4 races and finished on the podium 9 times in the British Championship. He finished 6th in the British and 9th in the European championship.

GP3 Series

Sainz signed with Arden for the 2013 GP3 series season but had a pretty torrid time as he would finish 10th in the championship while his teammate Danil Kvyat will win the championship. The result would mean graduation to Formula One for Kvyat while Sainz would move Formula 3.5 Renault to compete in the 2014 season.

Formula 3.5 Renault

After a torrid 2013, Sainz would bounce back in the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship, winning the title by beating fellow Red Bull academy driver Pierre Gasly. The win would mean further promotion for Sainz to Torro Rosso where he would team up with Max Verstappen for the 2015 Season.

Formula One

Torro Rosso(2015-17)

Carlos Sainz would make his debut in the 2015 season alongside young sensation Max Verstappen at Scuderia Torro Rosso. All eyes were on Max throughout the season and Sainz spent most of the season in the shadows of Max’s performances, By all respects, Sainz had put together a solid debut season but it paled in comparison to Verstappen who was able to put together some breathtaking drives throughout the season.

In the 2016 season, Sainz would see Max Verstappen replace Danil Kvyat at Red Bull Racing while Kvyat was demoted to Torro Rosso. Sainz would dominate his new teammate by consistently put together better drives than the Russian and finishing the season 12th in the driver standings.

In the 2017 season, Sainz would make further improvements and become the lead driver for Torro Rosso while he saw Pierre Gasly replace Danil Kvyat near the end of the season. He finished the season 9th in the championship with 54 points and signed a deal with Renault for the 2018 season.

Renault(2017-18)

Sainz had moved to Renault from the 2017 US Grand Prix. He was able to put together some decent performances with the team to end the season as he looked forward to life beyond Red Bull.

The 2018 season started promisingly as well as Sainz was able to score in 5 of the first 6 races. However, throughout the season, teammate Hulkenberg seemed to have an edge in terms of pace as Sainz finished the season 16 points and 3 places behind Hulkenberg. For the 2019 season, Renault replaced Sainz with Daniel Ricciardo while Sainz at the same time had brokered a deal with Mclaren to drive for the British team in the 2019 season.

Mclaren(2019-2020)

Sainz joined Mclaren at a time when the team had just lost Fernando Alonso’s services and were looking to make their way back to the front of the grid. Pairing alongside rookie Lando Norris, Sainz was able to bring consistent results to the team. He achieved his first podium at the Brazilian Grand Prix 2019, Mclaren’s first since 2014, and finished the season 6th in the championship.

The 2020 season saw the partnership of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr. blossom even further as the duo complemented each other and got scored valuable points wherever they could. In a startling display of consistency, Carlos notched up another podium and finished the season 6th in the standings. Sainz would move to Ferrari in the 2021 season to drive alongside Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari(2021-Present)

Carlos Sainz had a dream come true moment in 2021 when he got the opportunity to drive for Ferrari. The Spaniard wasted no time as well in impressing the team with the way he performed. While lacking the raw performance that his teammate Charles Leclerc brought to the table, Sainz and his more measured approach helped him secure some very impressive results with the team. Unlike teammate Charles Leclerc who excelled in qualifying, Sainz had far better results in races as he secured 4 podiums compared to just one for his teammate. As a result of his consistency, Sainz ended up becoming the first driver to outscore Leclerc in F1

The 2022 F1 season saw Sainz driving a potential title-contending car for. l the first time in his career. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to hit the ground running as Leclerc did. While Charles was the runaway championship leader truly stamping his authority in the first few races, Sainz was unable to keep up with him. He did crawl back some of the advantage that his teammate had but it was evident throughout the season who the lead Ferrari driver was. Sainz had his impressive moments as well in the season as he got his first pole position and his first career win but overall the season was a bit of a disappointment as he finished too far off his teammate.

The 2023 F1 season has been markedly better for Sainz in terms of his competitiveness against Charles Leclerc. The gaping performance deficit between the two drivers is now a thing of the past and Sainz has been more competitive. Having said that, the gap between the two drivers still exists as Charles continues to be the lead driver at Ferrari.

Family

Father: Carlos Sainz Sr.

Uncle: Antonio Sainz