Carlos Sainz is on the verge of his tenth season in Formula 1, but things could have turned out differently. The Spaniard reflects on a moment during his Formula Renault 3.5 days when Red Bull threatened to pull the plug on his Formula 1 dream. ‘That’s when I realized I might not make it to Formula 1,’ Sainz recalls.
Before Carlos Sainz made his debut for Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso, the Spaniard raced in the Formula Renault 3.5 class. Every driver in that racing class naturally dreams of a seat in Formula 1. This was also the case for the young Sainz, and the Madrid-born driver nearly saw that dream shatter.
“I remember getting closer and closer to a Formula 1 seat, and Red Bull then told me: ‘Next year is your last chance. You’re going into Formula Renault 3.5 and you win, or there’s no seat for you in Formula 1,'” Sainz tells in the Rolling Stone video Cards on the Table. “I was eighteen or nineteen years old at the time, so you really feel the pressure. And that’s when I realized I might not make it (to Formula 1).”
Fortunately for Sainz, his father, rally driver Carlos Sainz senior, offered the young driver some encouragement. “I was lucky to have my father, who was already a world champion. He told me then: ‘This is what you’re missing if you want to become a world champion.’ Subsequently, I won (the Formula Renault 3.5 championship) and made it to Formula 1.”
Competing with Verstappen
Sainz made his official Formula 1 debut for Toro Rosso in 2015, as a teammate of Max Verstappen. “There was a rivalry with Max. Toro Rosso wanted to create a competition to determine who could go to Red Bull,” the Madrid native told Corriere della Sera. Sainz never ended up at Red Bull, but he did race for Renault, McLaren, and Ferrari. In 2025, he will make his debut for Williams.
