Carlos Sainz Jr.: Four F1 Wins, Six Poles and Five Teams

Carlos Sainz Jr. has spent his Formula One career with five teams, most recently Williams, and he was born in Madrid. Across that career he has four Grand Prix wins, six pole positions and 29 podiums. All four wins and all six poles came during his years with Ferrari.

Who is Carlos Sainz Jr.?

Carlos Sainz Jr. is a Madrid-born driver racing in Formula One for the Williams team. Born on 1 September 1994, he has won four Grands Prix over 12 seasons and had 29 podiums by the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix. He is the son of a two-time World Rally Champion, and his path ran through karting and single-seaters.

His father, Carlos Sainz, won the World Rally Championship in 1990 and 1992 and collected 26 rally victories along the way. The younger Sainz was mentored by him throughout the climb towards Formula One, and the two shared a grounding in motorsport from an early age.

Four Grand Prix wins, six poles and 29 podiums across five Formula One teams, with every win and pole earned at Ferrari.

How did Sainz rise through the junior formulae?

Sainz moved from karting into junior single-seaters after a strong 2008 season, when he won the Asia-Pacific KF3 title. He joined the Red Bull Junior Team in 2010, and by 2014 he had won the Formula Renault 3.5 title with DAMS. Between those points he raced in several championships, each one a step towards the professional ranks.

Karting also produced a runner-up place in the Spanish Championship in 2008 and a second place in the European KF3 Championship in 2009. That year he also took the Junior Monaco Kart Cup. Maria de Villota coached him at a driving school in Madrid. After her death in 2013 he put a star on his helmet in her honour, from 2014, and in 2016 he was named ambassador of her legacy.

In 2010 he raced in Formula BMW Europe with EuroInternational and finished fourth with 227 points. His Formula BMW debut was a guest drive at Sepang in Malaysia, and across nine races that year he took three poles and two wins. In 2011 he won the Formula Renault NEC title with Koiranen and finished second in the Eurocup, behind Robin Frijns.

The step up to Formula 3 came in 2012. Racing for Carlin in the British championship, he won four races and took nine podiums, finishing sixth overall. In the Euro Series he scored two podiums and two poles to finish ninth. In 2013 he moved into GP3 with MW Arden, ending the season tenth with 66 points, and in the same year he began his Formula Renault 3.5 campaign.

What did his first Formula One test involve?

Sainz first drove a Formula One car at the young drivers' test at Silverstone in July 2013, where he used both a Toro Rosso STR8 and a Red Bull RB9. He later drove a Red Bull RB10 in a test held after the 2014 Abu Dhabi race.

Talks with the struggling Caterham team about a 2014 race debut came to nothing, so his grand prix career began in 2015 with Scuderia Toro Rosso. He partnered Max Verstappen, who had been promoted to Red Bull, and chose the number 55 for his car.

How did his Toro Rosso debut season go?

His debut at the Australian Grand Prix saw him qualify in the top ten and finish ninth. He scored again in Malaysia, but he spun out in China and retired in Bahrain with a wheel problem. At Monaco he started from the pit lane and recovered to tenth.

In Spain he qualified fifth, his best grid position of the year. The middle of the season brought four consecutive retirements, beginning with electrical failures in Austria and Britain. In practice for the Russian Grand Prix he crashed at 150 km/h, an impact of 46 g, and he spent the night in hospital. He recovered from last on the grid to take seventh at the United States Grand Prix. He finished the year fifteenth with 18 points, while Verstappen had 49.

What did the 2016 and 2017 seasons bring?

In 2016 Sainz's best result was sixth at the Spanish Grand Prix, and he finished twelfth in the championship with 46 of the team's 63 points. He also climbed from twentieth to ninth at the Canadian Grand Prix. Six races without points followed later in the year.

Points came in the first two races of 2017, before Lance Stroll tangled with him at Bahrain and ended his race there. Sixth at Monaco and eighth in Azerbaijan kept him in the points, and he earned his career-best fourth at the Singapore Grand Prix, which he called his best day in Formula One. Later that year he replaced Jolyon Palmer at Renault for the last four races, and he finished the season ninth with 54 points.

How did the Renault years go?

Sainz spent 2018 with Renault alongside Nico Hulkenberg. Over the first eight races he qualified in the top ten every time and scored in all but one of them. A fifth place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix came after Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo collided, and he went on to finish the year tenth with 53 points.

His Monaco weekend, which he described as a disaster, ended in tenth place after a strategy he criticised. He was fifth in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, a season best in that department. By the end of the year he had scored in thirteen of the nineteen races he finished, but Renault chose to keep Hulkenberg and replaced Sainz with Daniel Ricciardo for 2019.

What did the McLaren years achieve?

Sainz moved to McLaren for 2019, replacing Fernando Alonso and partnering rookie Lando Norris. His start was poor, with an engine fire in Australia and first-lap contact in Bahrain and China, but he then scored consistently. He finished eighth at the Austrian Grand Prix after starting nineteenth.

He was fifth at the German Grand Prix despite spinning on a wet part of the track.

His breakthrough came in Brazil. He started twentieth after an engine problem in qualifying, climbed to fifth by the penultimate lap, and was promoted to third when Lewis Hamilton received a penalty. That was his maiden Formula One podium. He ended 2019 sixth in the championship with 96 points, compared with 49 for Norris.

In 2020 he qualified third at the Styrian Grand Prix, his best qualifying result to that point, and set his first fastest lap while establishing a new Red Bull Ring track record. His second podium came at the Italian Grand Prix, where he finished 0.4 seconds behind Pierre Gasly. He ended the year sixth again with 105 points against Norris's 97, and he had six top-five finishes, both career highs at that stage.

Did Sainz deliver at Ferrari from the start?

Sainz joined Ferrari for 2021 on a two-year contract, replacing Sebastian Vettel and partnering Charles Leclerc. He finished eighth on his debut in Bahrain and took his first Ferrari podium in second place at Monaco. He ended the season fifth in the championship on 164.5 points, two places and 5.5 points ahead of Leclerc.

His season included a fourth place on track in Hungary that became third after Vettel's disqualification. He started second at the Russian Grand Prix, took the lead from Norris on the first lap and eventually finished third. Abu Dhabi gave him his fourth podium of the year, though he complained about the handling of the final-lap restart.

What did 2022 bring to his career?

Sainz finished second behind Leclerc in Bahrain, giving Ferrari a 1-2 finish, and he was runner-up in Monaco and in Canada. At the British Grand Prix, his 150th start, he secured pole in wet qualifying, edging Verstappen by 0.034 seconds.

Verstappen passed him in the race but slowed with damage, and Sainz regained the lead and won the race.

An engine failure ended a race in which he had been running third in Austria. In Belgium his second pole came after Verstappen took an engine penalty, but he fell behind both Red Bulls and took third. He claimed his third pole at the United States Grand Prix and retired after being hit by Russell at the first corner. The year closed with fifth in the championship on 246 points, against 308 for Leclerc.

Why does the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix matter?

Sainz took pole and then won the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix, his second Formula One victory. Red Bull's run of fifteen consecutive wins came to an end, as did Verstappen's sequence of ten. It was the only race of 2023 that Red Bull did not win, and he led the entire race distance.

The 2023 season had other highlights. He finished third at Monza after taking pole by 0.013 seconds ahead of Verstappen, and at the United States Grand Prix he was moved onto the podium once Hamilton had been disqualified. In Las Vegas a loose manhole cover damaged his car in practice, and a ten-place grid penalty followed. He finished sixth there and ended the year seventh in the championship on 200 points, six fewer than Leclerc's 206, after dropping from fourth at Abu Dhabi.

What did the 2024 season show?

Sainz qualified fourth and finished third in Bahrain, but appendicitis kept him out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where Oliver Bearman took his place. He returned in Australia, qualified second and won after Verstappen retired. That was his third Formula One win, and it gave Ferrari its first one-two since the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Mid-season form dipped, with upgrades that did not deliver and a crash into Alex Albon in Canada. He had already taken third at Monaco after three races without a podium, and he later picked up third at Austria. The second half of the year brought a pole and victory at Mexico City, second at the United States Grand Prix and third at Las Vegas. The season ended with second in Abu Dhabi, which secured fifth place overall on a career-best 290 points.

After the 2024 season he left Ferrari, and Lewis Hamilton took his seat for 2025. Ferrari rewarded him with the race-winning F1-75 chassis from 2022.

Has the Williams era matched his Ferrari years?

Sainz signed with Williams for a two-year stint, alongside Alexander Albon. It was his debut season with the team, and he finished ninth in the championship, nine points behind Albon. His first Williams podium came in Azerbaijan, where he qualified second and finished third, and a second came in Qatar.

The Azerbaijan result made him only the second driver to win podiums for Ferrari, McLaren and Williams, after Alain Prost. The 2025 season had its rough moments, including a crash on the first lap in Australia under safety car conditions, and a penalty in Bahrain for forcing Andrea Kimi Antonelli off track. Albon out-qualified him eight times over the year.

The 2026 season brought new regulations, and the Williams FW48 was a clear step back from its predecessor. Sainz's first points came in China, followed by two straight points finishes in Miami and Canada. Retirements came at Monaco, during a safety car restart, and at Austria, and a five-second penalty followed contact with Oscar Piastri in Hungary. On 19 August 2026 he signed a multi-year contract with Williams, keeping him with the team until at least the end of 2027.

What do his career numbers look like?

What other roles does he hold?

In February 2025 he joined the Grand Prix Drivers' Association board as a director, succeeding Sebastian Vettel. The role lets him carry the paddock's worries about safety, racing quality and the pathway for junior drivers to the association's full-time staff. The role sits alongside his race commitments.

Away from the track he owns Boogie Burger, a hamburger restaurant in Madrid that was launched in June 2023 by him and a circle of friends. His personal car collection includes several Ferraris, among them the F8 Tributo, the 812 Competizione and the Daytona SP3.

What is his legacy so far?

His record rests on four Grand Prix wins, a Formula Renault 3.5 title and points finishes with five teams. The results that stand out most came with Ferrari, where all four of his wins and all six of his poles came. His role at the GPDA extends his influence beyond the car itself.

With a Williams contract in place until at least the end of 2027, the next seasons will decide whether his tally of wins and podiums grows further. For now the record shows a driver whose best performances came in consecutive seasons between 2022 and 2024.