Carlos Sainz Vázquez de Castro, also known as Carlos Sainz, is a Spanish Formula One driver who drives for the Ferrari team. He was born on 1 September 1994 in Madrid, Spain. His father Carlos Sainz Cenamor, had previously been a racing driver and won the World Rally Championship two times.
Carlos Sainz – Early Career
1) Karting
Carlos Sainz Jr. started his racing career with karting. His 2008 achievements include the Asia-Pacific KF3 title and second place at the Spanish championships. He claimed the Junior Monaco Kart Cup a year later and took second place in the European KF3 Championship.
2) Formula BMW
In 2010, Sainz participated in Formula BMW Europe and raced for the Euromotorsport team. Furthermore, he was also a member of the Red Bull Junior Team. In Sepang, he drove for the first time as a guest driver for Formula BMW. He finished second in his first race in Malaysia, which was an excellent start to the season.
Carlos Sainz did not compete in the subsequent races in China, but he returned for the Singapore race. In the first race, he finished sixth, while in the 2nd, he finished second. Despite missing the Japanese races, Sainz won the season finale in Macau. In total, he won two races, achieved three pole positions, and set two fastest laps in nine races.
As a part of Formula BMW Europe, he got a third and sixth place podium finish at the Circuit de Catalunya. He finished 5th and 2nd at Zandvoort. In Valencia, he finished seventh and tenth. During a race weekend at Silverstone, he finished third and won the next race, his first season. In Hockenheim, he finished eleventh and sixth.
His championship dreams came to an end when he retired twice at Spa. At the season finale in Monza, he finished 8th and 6th, in a total of 227 points earning him 4th place. Sainz participated in the UK Formula Renault Winter Cup, where he finished sixth in his 1st race and retired in the 2nd race.
3) Formula Three
Carlos Sainz participated in the British F3 Championship and the F3 Euro Series in 2012. As a racing driver for Carlin, his career included winning four races, finishing on the podium nine times, and scoring a pole position in the British Championship, ultimately placing 6th overall in the championship standings. He finished 9th in the Euro Series and also took two pole positions and two podiums.
4) Grand Prix 3
Carlos Sainz signed a contract with Arden to participate in the 2013 GP3 series. Despite his best efforts, his debut weekend was not as successful as expected. He qualified in 5th place for the first practice session of the year. During the first race, Sainz was able to move up to 13th place. He was 13 seconds behind the leader at the start of the third lap as he was stuck in traffic. A car quarrel with a teammate dropped Sainz from 8th to 15th place.
Carlos Sainz started eighth in Valencia and finished eighth. During the second race, he began the race in fourth place but by the end of the lap he had moved up to third. In GP3, he claimed his first podium finish. Sainz ended the weekend with 24 points in the world championship, including four fastest laps in each of his two races. He was currently ranked sixth in the championship.
Carlos Sainz had another miserable weekend at Silverstone as he did not do well in either race. Sainz finished ninth in the first race after he was knocked off the track. At the finish line, Sainz dropped to 13th place because of damage to his car. His finish in race 2 was the same as his start, 13th.
5) Formula Renault 3.5
The first time Sainz competed in Formula Renault 3.5 was back in 2013. As a consequence, he didn’t participate in several races during his debut season due to his intense focus on GP3. He secured the sixth position in Monaco after an uneasy start. Even though he did not race in Austria and Moscow, he retired twice in Spa.
Carlos Sainz participated in the race in Hungary, where he finished 7th in the first race but 22nd in the second. He retired from the Paul Ricard Circuit in France for the second time. Despite retiring early from his final race in Catulunya, he still managed to finish sixth.
As of 2014, he moved to DAMS. In Monza, he competed in two races, finished 18th in the first and claimed win in the second. Sainz doubled his points at Aragon with another win, and in race two he finished fourth. He finished fourth once again at the Monaco race.
Another two wins followed at Spa over the weekend. However, he didn’t fare well in Moscow. He won the first race at the Nürburgring Circuit, but he retired from the second race. On the other hand, he won in France, where he scored 50 points.
Carlos Sainz – Formula One Career
1) Test Driver for Red Bull and Toro Rosso (2013)
Carlos Sainz was also hired in 2013 as a test driver by Toro Rosso and Red Bull at Silverstone to participate in their Young Drivers’ Tests.
2) Toro Rosso (2015–2017)
During the 2015 season, he drove for Toro Rosso, where he partnered with Max Verstappen. He qualified in the top ten positions during his first race at the Australian Grand Prix and ended in ninth place. Sainz lost control of his car while practicing for the Russian Grand Prix in 2015 and crashed into a wall. A seventh-place finish at the US Grand Prix marked the end of his season. In his debut season with Toro Rosso, he finished 15th.
In the Australian Grand Prix, he finished ninth, but he retired in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Later he ended up ninth once again in the Chinese Grand Prix. At the Russian Grand Prix, he did not score any points. He then finished sixth at the Spanish Grand Prix, eighth at the Monaco Grand Prix and ninth at the Canadian Grand Prix. After that, he finished in eighth place in the British, Hungarian, Austrian, and Grand Prix races.
Despite finishing sixth in the US Grand Prix, he failed to score any points during the Mexican Grand Prix. The Brazilian Grand Prix saw him finish sixth again, and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix resulted in no points. In the driver’s championship, he was ranked 12th with 46 points.
The season started off for Sainz with a 7th place finish in Australia. In China, he got an eighth-place finish. He collided with Lance Stroll in the pit lane before finishing the race in Bahrain. In the following race, the Russian Grand Prix, he came in 10th position due to a grid penalty. Charles secured sixth place in Monaco, and he finished seventh in Spain.
A collision in the first lap caused him to not finish in Canada. At Baku, he placed eighth, followed by seventh in Hungary. Afterward, his seventh-place finish came in Hungary after finishing eighth in Baku. In Austria, he finished outside the points, and in Great Britain, he retired due to a collision with another teammate.
Carlos Sainz placed fourth in Singapore, tenth in Spa, and fourteenth in Monza. A failure in his engine forced him to retire during the Malaysian Grand Prix, and a crash during the Japanese Grand Prix forced him to quit.
3) Renault (2017–2018)
Renault signed Sainz for the 2017 U.S. Grand Prix, where he drove with Nico Hulkenberg. During his first Renault race, Sainz finished in seventh and finished ahead of Nico Hulkenberg. However, his performance in the Mexican Grand Prix was less impressive. Due to a steering problem, he pulled out of the race. Apart from that, he did not earn any points for the remaining season. In the championship standings, he placed 9th after combining points earned at Renault and Toro Rosso.
During the 2018 season, Carlos Sainz started well, winning five races out of six but finishing second to his fellow teammate Nico Hulkenberg. He achieved his best finish of the season in Azerbaijan. Sainz ended the season in tenth place with 53 points earned from 13 out of 19 races.
4) McLaren (2019–2020)
In 2019, Carlos Sainz decided to move to McLaren to replace Fernando Alonso, and he will race alongside Lando Norris. Although Sainz was involved in incidents at the Chinese and Bahrain Grands Prix, he collected points continuously throughout the season, usually finishing on the back foot of the top teams. During the drivers’ championship, he competed with Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly for sixth place.
In the Brazilian Grand Prix, Sainz came third after Lewis Hamilton was penalized for colliding with another car. Moreover, he also earned the first podium of his Formula One career. He overtook Hulkenberg on the last lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to finish in tenth place, which earned him a point to rank sixth in the final standings.
Carlos Sainz placed fifth in Austria and ninth in Styria in the opening races of the season. After a puncture on the last lap of the British Grand Prix, he finished 13th. During the 70th Anniversary GP, he could not qualify inside the top ten due to an overheating issue and finished 13th once again. A power unit failure also prevented him from starting the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Italian Grand Prix marked his best race finish to date. After qualifying third, he finished second and earned his second podium. Once again, Sainz finished sixth in the driver’s championship at the end of the season 2020. He accumulated 105 points and 6 top-5 finishes, which were both career highs. In addition to 105 points, he had six top-5 finishes, both of which were career highs.
5) Ferrari (2021– Present)
From the 2021 season onwards, Sainz will partner with Charles Leclerc to replace Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari. After qualifying eighth in Bahrain, he finished eighth, and in the Emilia Romagna GP, he qualified eleventh and finished in fifth place. His first podium with Ferrari and third of his career came at the Monaco Grand Prix.
At the Hungarian Grand Prix 2021, he finished 3rd. After starting the Russian Grand Prix in second place, he overtook Lando Norris and finished third to earn his third podium for Ferrari.