As part of a daily series in the run-up to the start of pre-season, Motorsport Week brings you brief left-field reflections and stories of teams, drivers and reserve/test drivers that will be part of the Formula 1 paddock in 2019.
Carlos Sainz Jr. will this year race for McLaren, having spent a season with Renault, which came off the back of a near three-year spell with Toro Rosso.
Sainz Jr.’s role within the Red Bull junior scheme meant he had been touted as a potential driver for the senior team but the cards never aligned for such an opportunity to arise. But he did twice test for Red Bull – the first occasion coming at Silverstone in 2013, just a day after he made his Formula 1 test bow for Toro Rosso.
Sainz Jr. acquitted himself well in the RB9 and, despite completing only 35 laps, reigning champion Vettel was more than impressed and keen to have a look at the data to see what he could learn from Red Bull’s protégé.
Perhaps fittingly it was Vettel’s departure from Red Bull that paved the way for Sainz Jr. to graduate to Formula 1. Sainz Jr. had been overlooked by Toro Rosso as it swooped to recruit Max Verstappen to partner Daniil Kvyat, but the Russian was drafted in by Red Bull for 2015 when Vettel announced his departure.
A second Red Bull test beckoned in Abu Dhabi for Sainz Jr. at the end of his title-winning 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 campaign and, as at Silverstone the year before, he impressed, convincing Helmut Marko that he was ready to make the grade. Soon after hw as confirmed as Verstappen's 2015 team-mate at Toro Rosso.
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