Carlos Sainz recalls his debut year at Toro Rosso

      Carlos Sainz made his Formula 1 debut ten years ago, partnering Max Verstappen at Toro Rosso, who also began his path to fame with this team in 2015.

      Currently called Racing Bulls, its main purpose remains the same – it is a kind of racing talent factory for Red Bull Racing.

      Participating in another episode of the High Performance Podcast, the Spanish Williams driver shared memories of how this “factory” is organized and what was happening behind the scenes at that time…

      Carlos Sainz: “It was the year when you had to prove yourself and only think about yourself. Try to beat Max, who was trying to get ahead of me. You had to figure out who was better. The one who wins might move to Red Bull Racing.

      If you don’t win but manage to stand out, then you stay in Toro Rosso, stay in Formula 1, and continue your career. If you break down, if you lose, you’ll be out of Formula 1. So there were two mutually exclusive scenarios.

      The atmosphere in Toro Rosso was like this: we had to start fighting with Max right away, and that’s exactly why I love this team! But until recently, literally until the last few years, it always remained something like a stage where Helmut Marko and Christian Horner played their games: they took two drivers there and watched who was better to transfer him to Red Bull.

      In general, these two drivers were busy trying to beat each other. I’m not going to criticize this approach, because the team’s affairs are doing quite well. It really has produced great Formula 1 drivers, including Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

      Now Isaac Hajar is racing for it and doing an excellent job. Liam Lawson is recovering after an unsuccessful episode in his career related to Red Bull Racing. The team still fulfills its task. But the reality is that its interests always collide between the two drivers.”

      At the end of that season, Sainz finished 15th in the championship with 18 points, while Verstappen ended the year in 12th place personally, earning 31 points more.