Born 1 September 1994 in Madrid, Spain. Son of a two-time World Rally Champion who chose a different road. Four Formula One victories, 29 podiums, and a Ferrari exit he learned about from a friend rather than from the team. Now at Williams, the season he signed for.

Profile at a Glance

Early Life

Born in Madrid

Carlos Sainz Vázquez de Castro was born in Madrid on 1 September 1994, the son of Carlos Sainz and his wife Reyes Vázquez de Castro. His father is one of the most successful rally drivers in history: a two-time World Rally Champion, in 1990 and 1992, with 26 WRC victories and a career spanning four decades. Growing up with that name in Spanish motorsport meant two things simultaneously: an open door into the racing world, and a permanent question about whether what lay behind the door was talent or inheritance.

Sainz has addressed the question throughout his career directly rather than evasively. His official biography notes that he had to work harder to convince those who doubted his talent because of his family name. He largely persuaded them.

Why He Chose Alonso Over His Father's Road

Despite the obvious pull of the family's WRC legacy, Sainz chose single-seater racing. The reason he has cited most consistently is Fernando Alonso. A fellow Spaniard winning Formula One world championships gave the younger Sainz a reference point for what success could look like in his chosen discipline. He did not want to be the son of a world rally champion. He wanted to follow Alonso's road instead.

He took his first steps in karting in 2006, won the Asia-Pacific KF3 title in 2008 and the Junior Monaco Kart Cup in 2009, and joined the Red Bull Junior Team programme at sixteen in 2010.

María de Villota and the Star on the Helmet

When Sainz made the transition from karting to single-seaters, he attended the Madrid Drivers' School founded by Emilio de Villota, himself a former F1 driver. There he was coached by Emilio's daughter, María de Villota, a Spanish racing driver who was also working toward an F1 career.

Sainz has described those early sessions in specific terms: "I think I did 10-20 laps behind María. I keep them like gold in my mind."

In 2012, de Villota suffered a catastrophic accident during testing for the Marussia F1 team at Duxford Aerodrome. She lost her right eye and sustained serious head injuries. She died in 2013.

Since 2014, Sainz has carried a small red star on every helmet he has ever worn in every race. He was named Ambassador of her Legacy in 2016. He has described the tribute in precise personal terms: "It's not carrying the legacy but I do carry my personal Maria de Villota inside the helmet."

The star has been on his helmet at Toro Rosso, Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, and now Williams.

Junior Career

Formula Renault-Champion at Seventeen

Sainz won the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championship in 2011 with Koiranen, taking ten victories. He finished runner-up to Robin Frijns in the Eurocup that same year. In 2012, he raced in British F3, the F3 Euro Series, and FIA European F3 with Carlin, spending three seasons developing through the lower single-seater ranks before finding his real breakthrough series.

Formula Renault 3.5-Champion Over Gasly

Sainz moved to Formula Renault 3.5 in 2013 with Strakka Racing, enduring an inconsistent first year. He switched to DAMS for 2014 and mounted a sustained title challenge. He won at Monza, Aragon, Spa-Francorchamps, the Nürburgring, and Paul Ricard. The championship went to the final rounds. He took the title over Pierre Gasly.

The championship secured his F1 debut with Toro Rosso in 2015.

Formula One Career

Toro Rosso-Debuting with Verstappen (2015-2017)

Sainz made his Formula One debut at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix alongside Max Verstappen. They were the youngest driver pairing in the history of the sport at that point. Verstappen was promoted to Red Bull mid-2016 after four rounds. Sainz remained at Toro Rosso, consistently scoring points in a car that was rarely near the sharp end.

At the 2015 Russian Grand Prix, he crashed heavily in third practice, hitting the barriers and spending a night in hospital. He competed in the race regardless.

His years at Toro Rosso were defined by extraction, taking more from the machinery than it had any right to offer, and by the growing sense that the machinery was the limitation rather than the driver inside it. In 2017, he was loaned to Renault from the United States Grand Prix, having already signed with the French team for 2018. His departure freed space in the Red Bull driver ecosystem that was reorganising itself around Verstappen.

Renault (2017-2018)

Sainz drove for Renault from the 2017 USGP through the end of 2018. Points finishes accumulated consistently. There were no wins, no podiums, and no front-running machinery. His purpose at Renault was partly to establish himself in the midfield on his own terms, outside the Red Bull structure, and he did so. The two years built his credentials for the move that followed.

McLaren-Replacing His Hero (2019-2020)

Sainz joined McLaren for 2019, taking the seat vacated by Fernando Alonso, the driver he had cited as the reason he chose single-seater racing in the first place. He described the context himself: Alonso was his childhood hero, and the sequence from admiring him to sitting in the same cockpit was not lost on him.

He scored his first Formula One podium at Brazil in 2019, finishing third. His second came at Monza in 2020. He finished fifth in the championship in 2020, his best result to that point. He left for Ferrari having established himself as a consistent front-of-midfield driver capable of podium results in the right circumstances.

Ferrari (2021-2024)

Sainz joined Ferrari for 2021, replacing Sebastian Vettel alongside Charles Leclerc. His debut Ferrari season brought no victories but consistent performances and a points total that demonstrated he was not losing the intra-team battle comprehensively. The following year, with Ferrari's most competitive car in a generation, the wins arrived.

The British Grand Prix 2022. Silverstone. A four-way fight for victory in the closing laps. Sainz held on. His maiden Formula One win came in his 150th Grand Prix start. Ferrari would later give him the F1-75 chassis in which he won that race as a parting gift when he left for Williams three years later.

Singapore 2023-the lone dissenter. Red Bull won every other race in the 2023 season. At Marina Bay, Sainz qualified on pole and won the race cleanly, making him the only driver on the grid to break Red Bull's dominance across the entire year.

Australia and Mexico 2024-the post announcement performances. In late January 2024, Sainz learned that he would be losing his Ferrari seat. He did not learn this from Ferrari. He learned it from a friend.

Contract negotiations had been ongoing since October 2023 and had stalled without resolution. Sainz was deep in pre-season physical preparation when the news arrived. Hamilton was coming. Sainz described the experience: "It took me a good week to accept it and to assimilate it. You never get too much of a reaction from me. I think I'm quite level-headed in that sense. But that gave me a bit of a kick." He said the months that followed were "probably the best version of myself as a racing driver to date."

He subsequently said he understood Ferrari's decision: "100%. I understood it almost right from the beginning. When you understand Lewis Hamilton, the seven time world champion and one of the best, if not the best, in history, is going to replace you at Ferrari... I also understand why it was never going to be Charles. Charles has been the project of Ferrari ever since he was a junior driver."

He won in Australia in 2024. He won in Mexico. His final season at Ferrari ended with him fifth in the championship on 290 points. Hamilton finished sixth in the same McLaren-dominated year with 213.

The Fiorano farewell. Before the 2025 season began, Ferrari arranged a private test at Fiorano. Carlos Sainz Jr. drove. His father, Carlos Sainz Sr., drove alongside him. Both were in the F1-75, the 2022 championship machine. After the laps were done, father and son stood on the main straight and delivered speeches to the Ferrari staff gathered around them. It was not an official event. It was a family sending off a son who had worn red for four years.

Williams (2025-present)

The aftermath of Hamilton's announcement sent Sainz onto the open market as the most prominent free agent in the sport. Red Bull did not move for him. Mercedes did not move for him. The realistic options narrowed to Alpine, Sauber, and Williams. Sainz chose Williams.

James Vowles, Williams's team principal since February 2023, had spent months building the case for why Williams was the right choice. The argument was not about 2025. It was about 2026: the largest regulation change in over a decade, a fresh car design from the ground up, Mercedes power units, and a team that had been in structural transformation for two years. Vowles said publicly that Sainz and Albon formed "one of the most formidable driver line-ups on the grid."

The 2025 season did not begin smoothly for Sainz. He crashed on the formation lap of the Australian Grand Prix in wet conditions. A grid penalty for impeding Hamilton in Japan qualifying and a €20,000 fine for missing the national anthem through illness added to a difficult opening. Through the first half of the year, teammate Alex Albon was outscoring him significantly.

The turnaround came in Baku. At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Sainz qualified on the front row and finished third. It was Williams's first podium in four years. He took a second third place at the Qatar Grand Prix later in the season. He finished ninth in the championship on 32 points, nine behind Albon after a season Sainz openly acknowledged took time to adapt to: four years at Ferrari had left him with a driving style and a set of instincts tuned to different machinery.

In taking podiums for Ferrari, McLaren, and Williams, Sainz joined Alain Prost as only the second driver in history to achieve the feat across all three teams.

In February 2025, he was appointed a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, replacing Sebastian Vettel, the driver who had held his Ferrari seat before him.

2026-The Season He Signed For

Sainz enters 2026 in his second year at Williams and his twelfth in Formula One. He will be 31 at the start of the season. Williams has adopted the new Mercedes-AMG power unit and has built the FW48 around the entirely revised technical regulations.

He chose this season when most people expected him to demand a seat closer to the front of the grid. The argument he accepted from Vowles in July 2024 was that a rebuilt Williams in a new regulations era was the right environment for a multiple race winner with significant technical experience to make a genuine impact. Whether that argument translates into results is the central question of his 2026 season.

Off the Track

Sainz opened a hamburger restaurant in Madrid named Boogie Burger in June 2023, in partnership with a group of friends. He is a GPDA Director. He supports Fundación Juegaterapia, which works with children undergoing cancer treatment, and serves as Ambassador of the Legado María de Villota.

He dated Spanish actress Isabel Hernáez from 2017 until 2023. He has been in a relationship with Scottish model Rebecca Donaldson since 2024.

The red star is on every helmet. It has been since 2014.

Career Statistics

Career totals (end 2025): 4 wins · 6 pole positions · 29 podiums

Last updated March 2026