Before motorsport, Sainz played football and squash, becoming the Spanish squash champion at age 16 and receiving a trial with Real Madrid. His first driving experience came at age 11 in his sister Carmen's SEAT 600. A road trip to the Alps, during which he drove friend Juanjo Lacalle's SEAT 131 on snow-capped roads, led Lacalle to promise to serve as his first co-pilot. Sainz studied law through the second scheduled cycle before dedicating himself to racing.
Sainz began rallying in 1980. In 1981 he won the inaugural "Copa Panda" one-make series, a competition launched by SEAT for young drivers. He became SEAT's official pilot in 1982, driving a Group 2 SEAT Panda in the Spanish Rally Championship. He finished runner-up in the Spanish Rally Championship in 1986 in a Group B Renault 5 Turbo, then won the national title in 1987 and 1988 with a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth.
Ford gave Sainz his first WRC appearances during the 1987 season; he finished seventh at the Tour de Corse and eighth on the RAC Rally. In 1988 he partnered with co-driver Luis Moya, who remained his regular co-driver for the next fifteen years. The rear-wheel-drive Sierra was uncompetitive against four-wheel-drive cars, and both Sainz and his 1988 teammate Didier Auriol left Ford after that season — Auriol to Lancia, Sainz to Toyota Team Europe.
At Toyota Team Europe, Sainz drove the Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165. In 1989 he started with four retirements before finishing on the podium at three consecutive rallies; teammate Juha Kankkunen gave the ST165 its debut WRC win at Rally Australia. A mechanical failure on the final stage of the RAC Rally denied Sainz what would have been his first WRC win.
In 1990, Sainz won the Acropolis Rally, Rally New Zealand, the 1000 Lakes Rally — becoming the first non-Nordic driver to win it — and the RAC Rally, claiming his first WRC Drivers' Championship ahead of Lancia's Auriol and Kankkunen, ending Lancia's domination of the drivers' title since Group A began in 1987.
In 1991, Sainz and Kankkunen each won five rallies — the first time in WRC history that two drivers reached that tally in one season. Sainz led by one point entering the final round, the RAC Rally, but Kankkunen won ahead of Kenneth Eriksson and Sainz to take the title. Point totals for both drivers (Kankkunen 150, Sainz 143) broke the record Sainz himself had set in 1990 (140).
In 1992, now on the ST185 Toyota Celica GT-Four, Sainz won the Safari Rally and Rally Catalunya. A three-way title fight with Kankkunen and Auriol — who had taken a record six wins — came down to the RAC Rally. Sainz's victory ahead of Ari Vatanen and Kankkunen, combined with Auriol's retirement, secured him the title. A limited run of 440 Celica GT-Four ST185s carrying his name on a plaque was sold in the United Kingdom in 1992. Sainz left Toyota after 1992 because Toyota's new sponsor, Castrol, conflicted with his personal sponsor, Repsol.
Sainz moved to the private Lancia-backed Jolly Club. The Lancia Delta was an ageing design; despite assurances, little development came. His only podium was second at the Acropolis Rally. He and his teammate were later disqualified from the San Remo result for using illegal fuel. Sainz finished eighth in the championship; Lancia withdrew from the sport at the end of the season.
Sainz joined the Subaru World Rally Team in 1994, replacing Ari Vatanen. His experience as a development driver played a key role in developing the new Subaru Impreza; in his and Colin McRae's hands the Subarus were frequently faster than the Fords. The 1994 drivers' title went to Didier Auriol on the final round, with Sainz second.
In 1995, Sainz won the Monte Carlo Rally, Rally Portugal, and Rally Catalunya. At Catalunya, the team ordered McRae to slow down and allow Sainz to win, creating a dispute between the two drivers. Going into the season-ending RAC Rally, Sainz and McRae were tied for the championship lead. McRae won by 36 seconds despite losing two minutes to mechanical difficulties, and Subaru secured their first manufacturers' title with a triple finish; Richard Burns completed the podium in third.
Sainz had been set to return to Toyota for 1996 but the Toyota team was banned following the turbo restrictor cheating scandal. He joined the factory Ford team, bringing his Repsol sponsorship, and drove the Ford Escort RS Cosworth and later the Escort World Rally Car. In 1996 he won the inaugural Rally Indonesia and finished third in the championship behind Mitsubishi's Tommi Mäkinen and Subaru's McRae. In 1997 he won Rally Indonesia again and the Acropolis Rally, but again lost the title fight to Mäkinen and McRae. At the end of 1997, Sainz won the Race of Champions.
Sainz rejoined Toyota to partner Didier Auriol and help develop the Corolla World Rally Car project. He won on his first outing, the 1998 Monte Carlo Rally, and added a win in New Zealand. Entering the final round, Rally Great Britain, a mechanical failure 300 metres from the finish of the last stage denied him the fourth-place finish he needed to clinch the title; both Sainz and Toyota conceded their respective championships to Mäkinen and Mitsubishi Ralliart. In 1999, Sainz took eight podiums but no wins and finished fifth in the drivers' standings; Toyota won the manufacturers' title in their final WRC season before pivoting to Formula One.
Sainz completed a further three-year stint with Ford alongside McRae. He won the inaugural Cyprus Rally in 2000 and finished third in the championship. In 2001 he recorded five podiums and four other points finishes, finishing sixth despite being eleven points adrift of champion Richard Burns. In 2002 he inherited victory at Rally Argentina after the two leading Peugeots of Marcus Grönholm and Burns were disqualified; he finished third in the championship, one point ahead of McRae.
Sainz and McRae moved together from Ford to Citroën. In 2003, Sainz scored one win in Turkey — the first gravel-event win for the Citroën Xsara WRC — and finished third in the championship. His final WRC victory came at the 2004 Rally Argentina. At the 2004 Rally Catalonia, after announcing his retirement, he was cited by drivers, co-drivers, and team directors as the best rally driver in history. He finished fourth in 2004, missing the final round in Australia due to an accident during pre-event recce. In 2005, Citroën invited him back to replace the struggling François Duval; Sainz posted fourth and third-place finishes in two rallies before Duval reclaimed his seat.
Sainz competed at the Dakar Rally from 2006, initially with Volkswagen. In 2007 he won the FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup with the Volkswagen team. He led the 2009 Dakar until crashing out on stage 12. Also in 2009, he won the Silk Way Rally with Volkswagen. At the 2010 Dakar, co-driving with Lucas Cruz, he edged out teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah for his first Dakar win; he also took a second Silk Way Rally victory that year.
In 2013 Sainz entered Dakar in a two-wheel-drive buggy supported by Qatar and Red Bull; he won the first stage but retired on stage 6 with engine failure. In 2014 he retired after a crash on stage 10. In 2015 he joined Peugeot Sport driving the Peugeot 2008 DKR, retiring after a crash. In 2016 a gearbox failure ended his Dakar; in 2017 he rolled his Peugeot on stage 4. In 2018, Sainz took his second Dakar win with Peugeot. After Peugeot ended its rally raid programme, Sainz drove a Mini at the 2019 Dakar, finishing 13th. He won his third Dakar in 2020 with Cruz, leading by 6 minutes and 21 seconds. In 2021 with Mini he recorded three stage wins and finished third. After joining Audi in 2022, he won his fourth Dakar in 2024, becoming the oldest Dakar winner at age 61.
In November 2020, Sainz partnered with QEV Technologies to form the Acciona | Sainz XE Team for Extreme E, with himself and Laia Sanz as drivers. The team debuted at the 2021 Desert X-Prix, achieved a podium at the Arctic X-Prix, and finished sixth in the teams' championship. In 2022 they achieved two podiums and finished third. In 2023, after Sainz suffered multiple spinal fractures at the Dakar Rally, Mattias Ekström replaced him; the team won two races and narrowly lost the championship to RXR by 11 points.
His son, Carlos Sainz Jr., is a Formula One driver. He has an older brother, Antonio Sainz (born 10 December 1957), who was also a rally driver. Sainz was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit in 1994, the Olympic Order in 1997, the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit in 2001, and the Princess of Asturias Sports Award in 2020. In March 2012 he was inducted into the Rally Hall of Fame. In May 2020, he was voted the Greatest WRC Driver of all time in a poll of fans and expert journalists.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
