Carlos
Sainz Jr.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was born in Madrid on 1 September 1994. His father, Carlos Sainz, is a two-time World Rally Champion and acted as his mentor on the way to Formula One. Sainz began karting in 2006 and won the Asia-Pacific KF3 title in 2008. In 2010 he raced in Formula BMW and became a member of the Red Bull Junior Team. He won the Formula Renault NEC in 2011, then raced for Carlin in British Formula 3 and the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2012. In 2013 he finished tenth in GP3 with Arden, and in 2014 he took the Formula Renault 3.5 title with DAMS.

He made his Formula One debut with Toro Rosso in 2015, alongside Max Verstappen, finishing ninth in the opening race in Australia. He ended that season fifteenth in the championship. In 2016 he took sixth place in Spain and finished the year twelfth. In 2017 he was sixth in Monaco and fourth in Singapore. He then replaced Jolyon Palmer at Renault for the last four races, finishing the year ninth overall. He stayed with Renault in 2018 and ended the season tenth.

Sainz moved to McLaren in 2019, replacing Fernando Alonso and driving alongside Lando Norris. In Brazil he took his first podium in third place, after Lewis Hamilton was handed a penalty. In 2020 he was second at the Italian Grand Prix. In both seasons he finished sixth in the championship.

He joined Ferrari in 2021, replacing Sebastian Vettel and partnering Charles Leclerc. He was second in Monaco and finished fifth in the standings in both 2021 and 2022. At the 2022 British Grand Prix he took his first pole position and his first win. In 2023 he won in Singapore, the only Grand Prix of that season not won by Red Bull. In 2024 he won in Australia and Mexico City and again finished fifth in the championship. For 2025 he was replaced at Ferrari by Hamilton.

At Williams in 2025 he raced alongside Alexander Albon. Third place in Azerbaijan gave him his first podium for Williams, and he became only the second driver after Alain Prost to win podiums for Ferrari, McLaren and Williams. A second Williams podium followed in Qatar, and he ended the year ninth in the standings. In February 2025 he became a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), succeeding Vettel. He is racing for Williams in 2026.

Source: Wikipedia, “Carlos Sainz Jr.”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.