Carlos Sainz was born on 1st September 1994 in the Spanish capital of Madrid, and is currently 29 years old. His interest in motorsports started at a very young age, because his father is the legendary Carlos Sainz Sr., one of the greatest rally racers of all time. Sainz was a promising talent in the junior categories, catching the eye of Red Bull chief Helmut Marko, who signed him up in their young drivers program. Eventually, Sainz would make his F1 debut for Toro Rosso in 2015, before moving to Renault two years later. After two seasons in the French team, Sainz moved to McLaren in 2019 before joining Scuderia Ferrari, the team he is driving for now. As of now, Sainz’s contract with Ferrari runs out at the end of the 2024 season, and he doesn’t have an F1 seat beyond that.
Carlos Sainz’s Racing Career
Carlos Sainz’s karting championship victory came in 2008 when he won the Asia Pacific KF-3 title. He was also a winner of the Junior Monaco Kart cup in 2009, just a year before local boy and future teammate Charles Leclerc would win it. Sainz would go on to compete in several junior racing disciplines around the world, including the Formula BMW Series, Formula Three and Formula Renault 3.5. His performances were good enough for Red Bull to sign him up in their program in 2010.Sainz’s best result came in 2014, when he won the Formula Renault 3.5 championship, winning 7 races out of 17 that year. Sainz’s ties to Red Bull became useful for his Formula 1 just a year later, when Scuderia Toro Rosso (Red Bull’s sister team) fielded an all-rookie line-up consisting of Sainz and Max Verstappen. Sainz lost to Verstappen in their only season together as teammates, but was fairly consistent with his performances. He finished 15th in the Driver’s Championship standings in 2015 and 12th in 2016. Not seeing an opportunity of climbing higher than Toro Rosso at Red Bull, Sainz left the Faenza-based outfit midway into the 2017 campaign. Unfortunately, Renault was stuck in the midfield, with no signs of progress whatsoever. In 2017, he competed in just four races for the Enstone-based team, but his Toro Rosso performances helped him to a P9 finish in the standings. The following year, Sainz finished 10th, but was still unable to get a first Formula 1 podium. Sainz’s big break would come. In 2019, a spot opened up at McLaren alongside the rookie Lando Norris and the Spaniard grabbed this opportunity with both hands. He became a star, forging a strong friendship with Norris both on and off the track. He got his first ever podium finish at the 2019 Brazilian GP, when Lewis Hamilton received a five-second time penalty that promoted Sainz to P3 at the end of the race. Sainz’s 2019 season would end with him finishing P6 in the standings. Sainz would go on to compete at McLaren for one more season, and he got another podium at his belt at the 2020 Italian GP in Monza, a race that was won by AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. Sainz was close to a win, but just lost to the Frenchman. In 2020 too, Sainz finished P6 in the standings. In 2021, Sainz received a call from Scuderia Ferrari, the most successful team in F1 history, and he made the switch from Woking without much thought. Together with Charles Leclerc, he formed a very balanced and strong partnership on the track, that helped Ferrari as a team. Personally too, Sainz managed to get his first win and pole position of his F1 career with Ferrari at the 2022 British Grand Prix. In 2023, he managed to become the only non-Red Bull race winner in a season dominated by the Austrian stable when he won the Singapore Grand Prix. In his three seasons with the Maranello-based outfit so far, Sainz has finished P5 twice, followed by a P7 finish in 2023. He has 2 race wins, 3 pole positions and 16 podium finishes to his name.
