EverythingF1 would like to wish a very happy birthday to young Carlos Sainz, who turns 28 today.
The smooth operator has been in F1 since 2015, when he made his debut alongside current world champion Max Verstappen at Torro Rosso. He also scored points on his debut, having qualified P10 and crossing the line P9 on the Sunday.
He endured his first serious accident at the Russian Grand Prix in 2015, when he crashed into the barriers at 150kph with an impact of 46g. He missed qualifying but was declared fit to race on the Sunday.
He continued at Torro Rosso throughout 2016, where he initially partnered Verstappen and then later Danny Kyvat, who was swapped with Verstappen after some poor results for Kyvat. Sainz and Kyvat continued as teammates into 2017, which they did.
Towards the end of the season, Torro Rosso dropped Kyvat from the team altogether, and promoted Pierre Gasly to a race seat for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Sainz scored his best race result of 4th at the Singapore Grand Prix in 2017.
For the final 4 races of 2017 Sainz moved to Renault, who had dropped Jolyon Palmer. He partnered Nico Hulkenberg. He also raced for Renault for the 2018 season, and was replaced by former Red Bull alumni Daniel Ricciardo for the 2019 season.
2019 saw him move to McLaren and partner Lando Norris, where they both endured some good success. Sainz scored McLaren’s first podium for a number of years at Brazil in 2019, after Hamilton received a penalty for colliding with Alex Albon and was given a penalty.
2020 saw the closest Sainz would get to a race win, as he crossed the line for a brilliant P2 in Monza, just behind former teammate Pierre Gasly who scored his maiden win. He was very even with his teammate, scoring 105 out of 202 points.
In 2021 he joined Ferrari to partner Charles Leclerc, and replacing the outgoing Sebastian Vettel. He scored some good results in 2021, and ended the season on 164.5 points, and finished the season in 5th, ahead of his teammate in the championship standings.
2022 saw Sainz take his first pole position and win at the British Grand Prix. He made a good start at the race restart, holding off a charging Verstappen at the start, and later on a charging Perez and Hamilton to claim his maiden win. He has also scored numerous podiums during the 2022 season, during which he has been hampered by reliability issues.