Carlos Sainz

It is widely anticipated that the Spanish race will fall off the calendar in 2020, with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort set to occupy its traditional early May date.<br>However, the Barcelona organisers insist that they still hope to conclude a new deal with F1 owners Liberty Media.<br>The attendance in Barcelona last weekend was impacted by the absence of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso ...

read on

A radio conversation between Stallard and Sainz was overheard in Friday practice, where there looked like there had been a name mix-up.<br>Stallard began the conversation with: "Darren, it's Tom... sorry Carlos!"<br>Then in response, Sainz cheekily said: "Hello Tom, I'm Darren."<br> <br>The exchange prompted some confusion among fans about what had happened, with various theories about it being ...

read on

After losing his drive for the works Renault team, which finished fourth in the championship last year, Sainz moved to McLaren to try to help revive the title-winning teams fortunes. <br>McLaren’s performance has transformed after a major slump in 2018, with rookie driver Lando Norris admitting its early-2019 results have come as a surprise. <br>Ahead of scoring his first McLaren points in ...

read on

McLaren has shown solid progress this season, and is currently fourth in the constructors’ championship after a double points finish for Sainz and teammate Lando Norris in Azerbaijan.<br>But although the team is now a challenger for best-of-the-rest behind the top three teams, Sainz says McLaren's ambitions are much greater, which is why it needs to lift its game even more.<br>"Pretty much every ...

read on

Sainz has switched to McLaren from the Renault works team but is continuing for a third straight season using the French manufacturer's engines, because McLaren is a customer.<br>Renault's reliability remains dubious but it has made a performance step in 2019, while McLaren also appears to be able to run with less drag this year.<br>Asked by Motorsport.com about McLaren's Azerbaijan Grand Prix ...

read on

Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion Michael, took part in an F1 test for the first time at the end of March and has been the subject of intense interest since.<br>The 20-year-old is racing in F2, which supports F1 at 12 events this year.<br>Sainz, the son of two-time World Rally champion Carlos, said he struggled in the spotlight of being the son of a famous driver.<br>Asked about ...

read on

McLaren has recruited the ex-Porsche LMP1 head to complete the management overhaul it hopes will lead it to the front of the F1 grid again.<br>Seidl will start working for McLaren on May 1 and Sainz said was left enthused by a first meeting with him last month in Bahrain, where Seidl attended the grand prix as a guest.<br>"I met him at the grand prix," said Sainz. "We had our first chance to say ...

read on

Sainz and teammate Lando Norris were consigned to running at the back of the field in damaged cars after tangling with Kvyat's Toro Rosso at Turn 6 on the first lap.<br>Kvyat was blamed by the stewards and given a drive-through penalty. Both he and Norris eventually retired, while Sainz recovered to 14th.<br>"We were just all fighting in Turn 6, and at the exit of the corner I think someone didn't ...

read on

Both Sainz and his teammate Lando Norris showed well in Friday's second 90-minute practice session but even this came as a surprise, and come qualifying neither driver made it through to the top-10 shootout. <br>The team had appeared to be on an upward trajectory after four particularly miserable seasons, but the characteristics of the Shanghai International Circuit punished shortcomings in the ...

read on

Sainz says that, amid a disappointing 2018 campaign, McLaren’s focus was on getting to the bottom of its troubles before committing to this season’s car.<br>And although that allowed McLaren’s rivals to get a head start in working on their 2019 challengers, Sainz believes this also means his outfit has greater scope to improve its car from now on.<br>“I think where we were in Abu Dhabi in ...

read on

The Netflix 'Drive to Survive' series has done much to raise interest in F1, and has been widely welcomed in the sport for broadcasting sides of the business that are not normally shown.<br>Sainz, who was the focus of one episode alongside Fernando Alonso, reckons that being able to speak more freely than what he normally can at grands prix was something that he thought was hugely ...

read on

McLaren driver Sainz and Red Bull rival Verstappen made contact at Turn 4 early in the race as the Spaniard attempted to pass the Dutchman for fifth position.<br>The clash resulted in Sainz getting a puncture and needing to pit, as he dropped to the bottom of the field.<br>Verstappen went on to finish in fourth position, and was only stopped from scoring a likely podium by a late safety car that ...

read on

The Woking team got both Sainz and teammate Lando Norris into Q3, the first time it has had both cars in the top 10 shoot-out since 2017.<br>Sainz finished less than a second off pole position and less than a tenth behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who qualified fifth in the first non-Ferrari and non-Mercedes car.<br>The Spaniard said it was impossible to imagine such a result given McLaren's ...

read on

Ahead of this weekend's race in Bahrain it emerged that Sainz would need to move onto his second MGU-K following the early failure he suffered in the race in Melbourne.<br>However, the FIA confirmed at the start of the first free practice session at Sakhir that McLaren has made a host of changes.<br>As well as the new MGU-K, Sainz switches to a second internal combustion engine, turbocharger and ...

read on

With Kevin Magnussen having emerged as the leading driver behind the top three teams in Australia, Sainz thinks the American outfit has an edge that may not be closed down.<br>"They are from the midfield a bit too far ahead for everyone else," explained Sainz on Haas.<br>"That is the only bad thing compared to last year, that the Haas are a bit too far away compared to last year."<br>Asked how big ...

read on

With drivers limited to just two MGU-K components for the season, moving on to the second element so early in the campaign is far from ideal.<br>On the back of some MGU-K problems encountered in testing, Sainz admitted ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix that the energy recovery system was the ‘weak point’ of his car.<br>“Hopefully they [Renault] are looking at it, and they have been looking at ...

read on

Last season McLaren made a promising start with five points finishes from the first five grands prix, and briefly held third in the constructors' championship.<br>It then stagnated, drifting back to a distant sixth in the standings and spending much of the year in a battle with Williams at the tail of the field.<br>The team began this year with a Q3 appearance courtesy of Lando Norris in ...

read on

All bar one of Sainz's four seasons in F1 have been with Renault power, and he drove for the French manufacturer's own team at the end of 2017 and all of 2018.<br>Renault's lack of progress, particularly in qualifying trim, was a key factor in the breakdown of its relationship with Red Bull and left McLaren as its only customer for 2019.<br>After an encouraging qualifying performance in the ...

read on

The Renault convert started only 18th after encountering Robert Kubica's puncture-hobbled Williams on his final Q1 lap, and then became the race's first retirement with an MGU-K failure while running 14th on lap nine of the 58-lap event.<br>Given that he was running between eventual ninth and 10th place finishers Lance Stroll and Daniil Kvyat at the time, Sainz was convinced he would have gone on ...

read on

After his squadmate Lando Norris set the pace on the first day of the second week of testing, Sainz took over in the MCL34 to post the fastest lap of the F1 pre-season so far, a 1m17.144s.<br>The lap, set on the C4 tyre compound, is a quarter of a second quicker than Nico Hulkenberg's opening-week benchmark for Renault, and is within a second of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton's Spanish Grand Prix ...

read on

Sainz set his benchmark time of 1m17.144s within the first two hours of the morning before going on to complete more laps than any other driver with 130.<br>His leading time never looked close to being threatened until the final 20 minutes of the day.<br>Racing Point - which again lagged behind in the mileage stakes - bolted a set of C4 tyres on Sergio Perez's car, which he used to go second with ...

read on

Sainz took over the MCL34 from teammate Lando Norris - who ended Tuesday's first day on top despite twice stopping out on track - on Wednesday morning and went fastest on his first timed run towards the end of the first hour with a 1m18.878s.<br>His next improvement took him into the mid-1m17s, before he set his session-topping 1m17.144s lap on the softer C4 compound around an hour and a quarter ...

read on

Former Renault and Toro Rosso driver Sainz set the second-fastest time on Monday on the C3 tyre, eclipsing Haas man Romain Grosjean to emerge as pacesetter Sebastian Vettel's nearest challenger.<br>The Spaniard also completed 119 laps, the third-most of any driver, despite suffering a delay when his car lost drive at the exit of the pitlane and he had to be wheeled back in at the start of the ...

read on

Renault has talked up the progress it has made with its 2019 powerunit, with the company's F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul saying it had found "significant" power gains over the winter.<br>While Sainz is not getting too carried by the positive early talk yet, he says that the benefits to his own team could be important if the progress proves to be real.<br>"Everyone looks to be talking very ...

read on

Hulkenberg won F1’s ‘Class B’ fight last season, finishing seventh in the championship behind the drivers at Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.<br>However, joining Renault in 2017 to spearhead its works team effort represented a longer-term project as the French manufacturer is a recent re-addition to the grid.<br>That means Hulkenberg is still searching for his first podium finish, holding an ...

read on