McLaren
Which team did Carlos Sainz Jr. play for from 2019 to 2020?
Carlos Sainz Jr . Carlos Sainz Vázquez de Castro , otherwise known as Carlos Sainz Jr . or simply Carlos Sainz , ( born 1 September 1994 ) is a Spanish racing driver competing in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari . He is the son of Carlos Sainz , a double World Rally Champion , and the nephew of rally driver . In 2012 Sainz raced in the British and European Formula 3 championships for Carlin . He raced for DAMS in the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 season , winning the championship before moving to F1 with Toro Rosso . Sainz moved to McLaren for the 2019 season , while at the same time ending his contract with Red Bull Racing . At the Sainz took his maiden Formula One podium finish with third . Sainz added another podium by finishing second at Monza the following year before departing for Ferrari at the end of that season . Sainz scored his third and latest podium by finishing second for Scuderia Ferrari at the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix . Career . Karting . Born in Madrid , Sainz began his career in karting . In 2008 he won the Asia-Pacific KF3 title , as well as finishing runner-up in the Spanish Championship . In 2009 he won the prestigious Junior Monaco Kart Cup , and was runner-up in the European KF3 Championship . Formula BMW . Sainz raced in Formula BMW Europe in 2010 with the EuroInternational team . He is also part of the Red Bull Junior Team programme . He made his Formula BMW debut during a guest drive in the Formula BMW Pacific series at Sepang . Because he was a guest driver , he was ineligible to score points , however his first races in Malaysia went very well , as he managed to get second place at the opening race . That impressive debut followed with 4th place . On the following race day , he retired in the first race but won the second race . It was this impressive start which got him a place at the Red Bull Junior Team . Helmut Marko applauded Sainz and his strong start in motor racing . He finished 7th in the following race but again amazed everyone by winning again . He missed the next races in China but came back in Singapore . He finished in 6th in the first race and 2nd in the second race . He missed the Japanese races but returned to the season finale in Macau to win . Overall , in 9 races he achieved 3 pole positions , 2 wins and 2 fastest laps . In Formula BMW Europe , he started his career with a podium position of 3rd and 6th place at the Circuit de Catalunya . At Zandvoort , he took 5th and 2nd place . At Valencia he scored a 7th and 10th place . A weekend at Silverstone saw him take 3rd place and a victory in the following race , his first that season . Hockenheim saw him take 11th and 6th place . A 4th and a podium position of 3rd enlightened his championship hopes but Robin Frijns was on a charge , scoring a podium position in every race but 3 , two he finished in 4th . A double retirement at Spa put an end to his championship dreams . An 8th and 6th at the season finale at Monza followed . He finished the season 4th with 227 points . Sainz also competed in the UK Formula Renault Winter Cup , finishing 6th in the first race and retiring from the second race at Snetterton . Formula Three . During the 2012 season , Sainz raced in both British and Euro Series Formula 3 championships . Racing for Carlin , he won four races , finished nine times on the podium , as well as scoring a pole position in the British championship , finishing sixth overall in the final championship standings . He scored two podiums and two pole positions in the Euro Series championship , finishing in ninth position overall . GP3 . In 2013 , Sainz signed with Arden to compete in the GP3 series . Most Red Bull Racing Juniors race for Arden as it is co-owned by Red Bull boss Christian Horner and driver Mark Webber . His first race weekend in the series did not go as expected . During the first qualifying session of the year , he managed to qualify in 5th place and was only 5 tenths off pole sitter Kevin Korjus . However he , as well as Alex Fontana and Patrick Kujala , were penalised 10 places for ignoring yellow flags during free practice . During the beginning of race one , Sainz managed to get up to 13th place by passing Alex Fontana and Jimmy Eriksson off the start . By the start of lap 3 , he was already 13 seconds behind the leader , however , this was due to him being stuck in traffic . Sainz had made it all the way up to 8th place with his teammate Daniil Kvyat until both cars lacked grip . Because they were both pushing to get into the top ten for points , neither driver decided to manage their Pirelli tryes and so by the end of the race , Kvyat was 20th and Sainz managed to get 15th place and so effectively he never gained or lost any positions . However , worryingly for him , he finished 51 seconds off first placed man Tio Ellinas . Sainz started in 15th place for race 2 on Sunday morning . At the end of lap 1 , he managed to gain 6 places to find himself in 9th place . As they approached lap 2 , the safety car was deployed due to an accident behind , giving Sainz time to save his tyres . With 5 laps remaining , Sainz was up to 8th place . During the next lap , he managed to put a move on Jack Harveys ART car to move up into 7th place . Sainz eventually would finish in 7th place . However , post race investigating revealed the Sainzs car was underweight , and so he was disqualified from the final results from race 2 , thus scoring no points during what was a difficult weekend for not only Sainz , but for his teammate , Kvyat , who retired during the race due to contact with another driver . In Valencia , Sainz began , and finished , the race in 8th place . In race 2 , he started in 4th place and managed to get up into 3rd place by the end of lap 1 . He remained in that position , scoring a podium for the first time in GP3 . Before the weekend , Sainz had not tallied any championship points . By the time the weekend was over , Sainz had managed to obtain 24 world championship points , 4 for fastest laps in both races . He was now in 6th place in the championship and was looking healthy in the title fight . It was another bad weekend for Sainz at Silverstone , as in both races he got poor results . During the first race , Sainz was squeezed off track , falling to 9th place . By mid distance , it was all looking good and it looked even better when he managed to overtake Lewis Williamson to get into 8th place . Williamson then moved alongside Sainz to try and overtake but Sainz kept moving over towards him until there was contact . Williamson was sent into a spin whilst Sainz continued to circulate round the track . Due to the damage to his car , Sainz fell down the order until he crossed the finish line in 13th place . In race 2 , he finished where he started , in 13th place . Formula Renault 3.5 . Sainz raced in Formula Renault 3.5 for the first time in 2013 . However , because he was more focused on GP3 at the time he missed several races in his first season . In Monaco he was 6th was after a difficult start to his GP3 season . He had a double retirement in Spa . He missed the Moscow and Austria races but returned at Hungary to take 7th place in Race 1 but 22nd in race 2 after a few problems . In France , at the Circuit de Paul Ricard he had another double retirement . In the last race weekend of the year in Catulunya , he retired in race 1 but managed to score 6th place . In 2014 , he switched teams to DAMS . In the season opener at Monza he finished 18th in the first race but won the second . He left Monza with 25 points , beating his previous seasons score by 3 points . Another win at Aragon meant he doubled his score and in race 2 , he finished in 4th . Another 4th place followed at the one race in Monaco . The weekend at Spa followed with another 2 wins . Moscow followed and he did not perform well . 14th and 6th meant that he only took 8 points from a possible 50 . At the Nurburgring Gp Circuit , he won race 1 but in race 2 , he retired . In Hungary , he was no match for Roberto Merhi who led by half a minute from the rest of the field in the wet . Another 6th place followed in race 2 . In France , he won and scored a total of 50 points to extend his championship lead over Merhi . Formula One . Test Driver for Toro Rosso and Red Bull ( 2013 ) . In 2013 , Sainz also announced as a test driver for both Red Bull and Toro Rosso for as part of the Young Drivers Test at Silverstone . Toro Rosso ( 2015–2017 ) . - 2015 season Sainz drove for Scuderia Toro Rosso in the season where he partnered Max Verstappen at Toro Rosso , in 2015 , following Daniil Kvyats promotion to Red Bull . Sainz selected 55 as his race number . He qualified inside the top ten for his début , at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix , and finished the race in ninth position . In the third free practice session of the 2015 Russian Grand Prix , Sainz lost control of his car going into turn 13 of the Sochi Autodrom , hit a wall and went on to crash into the Tecpro barriers . After spending a night in hospital , he was allowed to race the next day but did not finish the race . In the United States Grand Prix he went to finish 7th which was his last points finish of the year . He finished 15th in his first season with Toro Rosso . - 2016 season He finished 9th at the Australian Grand Prix , followed by a retirement at the Bahrain Grand Prix . At the Chinese Grand Prix , he again finished 9th . Following no points at the Russian Grand Prix , he finished 6th at the Spanish Grand Prix , 8th at the Monaco Grand Prix and 9th at the Canadian Grand Prix before not finishing at the European Grand Prix . He then went on to record three 8th places in at the Austrian , British and Hungarian Grands Prix . He later had a streak of no points until the United States Grand Prix , where he finished in 6th place , he did not score any points at the Mexican Grand Prix , got another 6th place at the Brazilian Grand Prix and no points at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix . At the end of the season , he finished 12th in the driver standings with a total of 46 points . - 2017 season Sainz started off the season with 7th in Australia . In China , he made the boldest move in the field to be the only one on the dry tyres . It worked and he finished 8th . He did not finish in Bahrain after colliding with Lance Stroll when he was coming out of the pits which resulted in a three place grid penalty at the next race , the Russian Grand Prix , where he went on to finish 10th . In Spain , he once again finished 7th before his current season best with 6th place in Monaco by holding off Lewis Hamilton . He did not finish in Canada , where he was involved in a first lap clash with Romain Grosjean which took out Felipe Massa . He finished 8th in Baku before finishing 7th in Hungary after not finishing in the points in Austria and retiring in Great Britain due to a collision with his teammate . He finished in 10th at Spa , 14th in Monza and then 4th in Singapore . At the Malaysian Grand Prix , he retired due to an engine problem while driving alongside Pierre Gasly , who had replaced Kvyat for the weekend . He retired from the Japanese Grand Prix as well , after a crash . Renault ( 2017–2018 ) . Sainz moved to Renault beginning with the 2017 United States Grand Prix where he replaced Jolyon Palmer and partnered Nico Hülkenberg at Renault , with Kvyat returning to Toro Rosso to take his old place . In his first race for Renault , Sainz finished the race in 7th and outqualified Nico Hülkenberg , a feat Jolyon Palmer failed to do throughout the year , although it meant very little as Hülkenberg opted not to post a lap time in Q2 due to his impending grid penalties . A less impressive performance followed at the next race in Mexico . He qualified 9th , three and a half tenths down on Hülkenberg in 8th , and started the race in 7th following Ricciardos engine penalties . After the first lap , he found himself in 5th place , behind Hülkenberg , after championship contenders Vettel and Hamilton collided at the start of the race . However , Sainz spun in the high speed section of the track and flat-spotted his tyres and was forced to pit and came out in 19th place , with only the damaged and delayed Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton behind . He would remain at the tail-end of the field until he retired from the race with steering problems . He would not finish in the points for the rest of the season . He finished the season in 9th place , a career-high , with his points total combined from his time at Toro Rosso and Renault . - 2018 season Sainz had a positive start to the season scoring in five of the first six races but he finished behind his teammate Nico Hülkenberg in each of the four races they both finished . In Azerbaijan Sainz finished in a season high position of fifth . He would finish the season in tenth place on 53 points , 3 places and 16 points behind teammate Hülkenberg scoring points in 13 races out of the 19 races he finished . McLaren ( 2019–2020 ) . - 2019 season Sainz moved to McLaren for the season , replacing Fernando Alonso , who had retired following the season and partnering Lando Norris . After an unlucky pointless start to the season due to reliability issues at the and being involved in collisions at the Bahrain and Chinese Grands Prix , Sainz consistently scored points thereafter , often finishing strongly as the best of the rest behind the top three teams . He fought for sixth place in the drivers championship with Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon , who both spent part of the season in a much faster Red Bull . At the , Sainz was initially classified 4th , having started in 20th and last place following an engine problem in qualifying , but was elevated to 3rd after Lewis Hamilton received a penalty for causing a collision with Alexander Albon , earning Sainz his first podium in Formula One . Sainz has nearly doubled his points total from his previous best season , 2017 . At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Sainz managed to pass Hülkenberg on the final lap to take 10th place , scoring a point that earned him 6th place in the drivers championship at the end of the year . - 2020 season Sainz began the season with a fifth place followed by a ninth place at the Austrian and Styrian Grands Prix . At the latter , he qualified in third , his best career qualifying result ; and finished with his first fastest lap in Formula One and in doing so set a new Red Bull Ring track record . At the British Grand Prix , he suffered a tyre puncture on the penultimate lap while he was running comfortably fourth and at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix , he was forced to start outside the top ten because of an overheating issue hampering his qualifying pace . His race was not helped by a wheel gun malfunction during his pitstop , finishing in thirteenth . He could also not start the Belgian Grand Prix due to a power unit issue on a reconnaissance lap . At the following race ( the Italian Grand Prix ) he qualified third behind the dominant Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Bottas . He went on to finish second , his career best race finish and second podium , finishing 0.4 seconds behind race winner Pierre Gasly , and a maiden win . Sainz finished the 2020 season in 6th place of the drivers championship for the second consecutive year . He accumulated 105 points and 6 top-5 finishes which were both career highs . Ferrari ( 2021– ) . Sainz joined Scuderia Ferrari on a two-year contract from the season partnering Charles Leclerc and replacing Sebastian Vettel . He qualified and finished in 8th place at the Bahrain Grand Prix . He then continued to qualify 11th at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix to finish in 5th place , catching up his teammate , Charles Leclerc . He took his third career podium and first with Ferrari at the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix . Sainzs ability to adapt quickly to Ferrari has been widely praised for performances relative to highly regarded team mate Leclerc in the opening races of the season . Racing record . Racing career summary . As Sainz was a guest driver , he was ineligible for points. <nowiki>*</nowiki> Season still in progress . Complete Formula 3 Euro Series . Driver did not finish the race , but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance . Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results . Did not finish , but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance . Complete Formula One results . Did not finish , but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance. <nowiki>*</nowiki> Season still in progress .