What Does Carlos Sainz Jr.’s Record At COTA Look Like?

Carlos Sainz Jr.’s current season has gone from impressive to sedate where the last five races stand. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t quite look as though it is the same Carlos Sainz we are seeing amid live racing action where the past several races are concerned who had won a Grand Prix earlier this year. And that too, immediately after returning from a proper medical procedure.

But respect to where it’s due, Carlos Sainz Jr. bagged an impressive career win, the third of his journey in the sport so far, when he trumped his opponents at the home of the Australian Grand Prix: Melbourne. That was right at the back of being hospitalised at Jeddah (a race prior) for the removal of appendix.

The events from that points on have been rather forgettable, instead of being impressive or notable. How?

Do not go beyond the simple fact that the Madrid-born last stood on the podium at Austria, which besides being Red Bull’s home race and a famous Max Verstappen territory, has been the venue that birthed the legend of “last lap Lando“.

Somewhere it might just double the ache of the Sainz fans to simply think that their man scored a top three finish back on June 30, 2024. He has endured a podium draught in the seven races hence, which includes an exasperating episode at Baku, a few weeks ago, where he came out of nowhere to capture third and was really going for Leclerc, which is when instead of making the move stick, Sainz took himself and Perez out of the race.

If it wasn’t that way, then surely, it would be wonderful to have Carlos Sainz reflect on just what happened right it the middle of the landlocked country spanning Asia and Europe?

But this leads to a question, while what’s done is done, what can Carlos do where it comes to the US Grand Prix at COTA (Circuit of the Americas)?

It’s a track where, for starters, Carlos Sainz Jr. doesn’t have a race win. But it’s not that hard to gauge that anyway since the Sainz starter-pack includes, chilli, Madrid, “I have a golf“, Smooth Operator, Silverstone, Singapore, Monza’s epic pole lap of 2023 (that reviled his opponents but melted the hearts of the Tifosi), Melbourne 2024 and the face-frozen expression.”

Having said that, it would be much fun to ask Carlos what could he bring to tens of hundreds of fans around the world who see in him the best driver from Spain since a certain Fernando Alonso and one who’ll hopefully make sentences seem bright with Vowels in them starting next year.

As on date, Carlos Sainz has bagged a solitary podium at COTA. This came last year with Ferrari in what was a fine battling performance that saw the man described as intelligent as well as instinctive defending nicely from Perez; the Mexican bagging a P4.

But that’s all there’s to the Carlos Sainz record at COTA

Just one podium. As on date. Are we looking at another one? One doesn’t quite know. What one does know, in fact, is that one of Ferrari’s most capable, if also, underrated drivers would like to push hard and give it everything at Texas and emerge with an Owen Wilson-esque like “Wow” at the end of the 56-lap run.

But what seems interesting, if not fantastic necessarily, is just how many times Carlos Sainz has clocked in a P7 at this very venue. His maiden drive at the Circuit Of The Americas, circa 2015, yielded a P7 or seventh with his then team: Scuderia Toro Rosso. He would improve it to a sixth the very next year, immediately after which, Sainz bagged another P7.

However, Carlos Sainz’s P7 in 2017 came with Renault

Unless it’s very much forgotten, this was the year where Nico Hülkenberg race retired owing to an engine problem on just the third lap of the 56-lap contest, while Sainz, hugely inexperienced as compared to the German outperformed Nico even where it came to qualifying.

2017’s USA GP is known for a classic Hamilton versus Ferrari duel with the Iceman Kimi did as best as a P3, thereby supporting then teammate Vettel; the German scoring a second. But it was also the race where the often under-appreciated Spanish driver outperformed someone like Perez (then with Force India-Mercedes).

What happened with Sainz in 2018 at COTA?

The 2018 United States Grand Prix is a race that shall always be remembered for being Kimi Raikkonen’s valiance. The Iceman, once upon a time the most experienced driver in the history of Formula 1, captured a mega victory, in the process of which he defended from Hamilton and Verstappen with all his might.

Despite having not had pole position, Kimi dived down the inside of Sir Lewis to take the lead into turn 1 to hold off extreme pressure from the Stevenage-born.

It would be the Finn’s 21st victory, but also a race where Carlos Sainz Jr. captured yet another P7 at the venue. This time around, he had begun from eleventh on the grid.

How this was an impressive result for the then Renault driver competing at COTA?

Lest it is forgotten, Sainz had begun his COTA challenge four places behind then teammate Hulkenberg; the German qualified his Renault on seventh. And once again, Sainz was the better driver.

After that, 2019 was a dull event for Sainz who slipped a place down in comparison to his impressive 2018 effort, bagging a sedate looking P8.

And after 2020’s event stood cancelled owing to the pathetic pandemic called COVID 19, Carlos Sainz appeared at COTA again.

Only this time, he was in red racing overalls

Interestingly, in his maiden drive for the Scuderia family, Carlos Sainz got yet another P7 at COTA; Leclerc, meanwhile, hung onto an impressive third.

But Carlos was being himself at COTA: the P7 at Texas, probably a destination in America that you must visit for more than seven reasons.

Lame jokes kept side, Sainz didn’t exactly relish the 2022 run at one of America’s favourite racing tracks where it comes to F1 racing. The Spaniard struggled with a DNF.

However, the sad part being that it was none other than Carlos Sainz on pole at COTA 2022

Just how many of us Ferrari loving, Leclerc-adoring fans who live to see the red letter day remember that?

Sainz, who was involved in an opening lap tag with Verstappen, went from being first to last inside the space of one corner.

It surely must have hurt

And the last that one saw Sainz out in Texas was akin to seeing a cowboy returning to the land of inimitable horse stables. Just that Sainz was, but of course, rather aptly, competing for the Scuderia or the Stable as the word means.

That epic P3 would certainly have healed some of the wounds sustained from a forgettable 2022 run.

But having said all of the above, the big question is, what can Carlos Sainz do now in 2024 in what’ll be his last outing at the venue as a Ferrari driver. Well, for now; who knows what the future holds post Williams?

Fair to say, one reckons, that the man who fights heat by staying cool under pressure would want to play the Smooth Operator at COTA?

There’s so much to look forward to here, right Carlos?