Softly spoken and with an unassuming air, it would be easy to miss the determination that drives Carlos Sainz. Yet the moment his piercing gaze catches the eye, it is impossible to ignore.
It was unmistakeable in Hungary before this weekend’s grand prix, when he declared that his enjoyment of the sport he has loved since childhood is marred only by frustration with Formula One’s two-tier structure that prevents him from fighting for a win.
The McLaren driver has been going about his business this season with a quiet focus, delivering on the promise he displayed early in his career.
Last weekend at the German Grand Prix, in wet conditions, Sainz claimed fifth place for McLaren. It was the team’s best finish since Fernando Alonso, Sainz’s childhood hero, finished fifth in Australia last year. That position is the highest place the team have managed in the past four years. For Sainz it was the latest in a run of admirable drives by the 24-year-old, who is seventh in the championship.
However, impressive as this has been, it is far from where Sainz wants to be.
“I find it incredibly annoying going to every race to finish seventh, or even fifth,” he says. “I think everyone outside of the top six drivers finds it incredibly annoying. Some will say it, some won’t but everyone that’s in F1 at the moment has won in other categories.
“Then you are here and you spend five years or even longer without really having even a taste of a victory. It shows the sport needs to adapt and change to make it more diverse.”
He is not alone in an opinion that reflects the blunt reality of modern Formula One and is understandably chafing at the bit for change. Sainz and his teammate Lando Norris have established McLaren as the best of the midfield teams, fourth in the constructors’ championship, 28 points in front of Toro Rosso. But the gulf to the big three of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull remains huge.
McLaren are 147 points behind third-placed Red Bull. Since the turbo-hybrid era began in 2014, no one from outside the top three has won a race. Worse still, since 2017 there has been only three podium places taken by a driver from the remaining seven teams. As Sainz points out his chances are largely dictated by how the leaders are performing.
“We still depend on others making mistakes to be better than seventh,” he says ruefully. “At the moment there are those three teams who are incredibly strong compared to us but I feel if they make mistakes we should be there to fish in the pond.”
Sainz, clearly, did not come into Formula One to be dangling his hook on the off-chance of a bite. His goal was and remains to become world champion, a target set when he was 11 years old and told his father: “I want to be like Fernando Alonso. What do we need to do?” Fortunately his father was Carlos Sainz, the double World Rally champion. Sainz had never pressured his son, who started karting for fun when he was three, into driving but realised he had been entranced by Formula One when the nine-year-old forced him to get up at 4am to watch the Australian Grand Prix.
Taken on as a Red Bull junior and making his F1 debut for Toro Rosso alongside Max Verstappen in 2015, he performed well against the Dutchman but it was finding himself vying with Alonso that meant the most to Sainz.
“I find Fernando an inspiration, in 2015 it was huge because in my first year in F1 I started pretty much every race next to him,” he explains. “It felt special against my idol, I felt proud and privileged.”
This was the period that forged Sainz’s belief in his ability to compete with top drivers, should he be given the machinery to do so. “Even if we were fighting for P7, I was fighting a world champion in his prime,” he says. “That gives me the confidence that if I get the chance to fight for a win or for a world championship, I will know how to do it because I have already been fighting against a quality driver. It’s just that we are not able at the moment in the midfield to do that. I think 80-90% of the drivers in F1 now could fight for wins and world championships.”
Norris has rightly attracted acclaim for a competitive opening to his rookie season and the two drivers enjoy a friendly relationship in the increasingly optimistic atmosphere at McLaren. Sainz however has been scoring more of the points, a fact doubtless not lost on his previous employers at Red Bull. In the last eight races he has outscored Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly by 48 points to 42. After 2016, as his chances of a drive with Red Bull declined, with Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo established at the team, Sainz understandably began considering his options. He was allowed to drive for Renault on loan in the latter part of 2017 and then 2018 but when Red Bull chose Gasly to replace Ricciardo this year he opted to leave Red Bull for good for McLaren. He is one of the few drivers from the Red Bull stable who has managed to continue his career in F1 having not had a shot at the senior team.
With Gasly struggling, Red Bull may be regretting letting their man go, while McLaren know what an asset they have, even if their car which is not at its best in low speed corners is unlikely to shine at the Hungaroring. For Sainz he is in a relationship where he is thriving.
“This feels like a new start for me because it is my first two-year deal, a long term project in F1,” he says. “People sometimes underestimate how important that is for a driver to perform. To have that confidence, that support, that mutual trust.”
F1 has high hopes for the new regulations of 2021 going some way to levelling the playing field, as does Sainz, who desperately wants to compete against the best. Yet with that unassuming air, this young man is still quietly confident he is making his mark.
“I think the people that need to see my talent are seeing it, people who understand F1 well are valuing my performance,” he says. “When you drive it is you, the car and your performance on track that counts. That, is why I do it.”
On track in Hungary, Lewis Hamilton, looking to bounce back after a poor performance at the German Grand Prix, looked on good form to exploit his Mercedes’ strengths through the twisting corners of the Hungaroring. He was quickest in first practice, just over 0.16sec clear of Verstappen and the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.
In an afternoon that was largely wet, and with relatively limited running Gasly and Verstappen topped the time sheets, in front of the Mercedes of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. With limited data gathered qualifying, which should be dry, may prove to be an intriguing prospect on Saturday.