Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz
World Rally Championship record
Nationality	Spanish
Active years	1987 - 2005
Teams	Toyota, Lancia, Subaru, Ford, Citroën
World rallies	196
Championships	2 (1990, 1992)
Wins	26
Podium finishes	97
Stage wins	756
Points	1242
First world rally	1987 Rally Portugal
First win	1990 Acropolis Rally
Last win	2004 Rally Argentina
Last world rally	2005 Acropolis Rally

Carlos Sainz (born April 12, 1962 in Madrid, Spain) is a former Spanish rally driver. He was World Rally Champion for Toyota in both 1990 and 1992. His co-drivers were Luis Moya and Marc Marti. Constructors' World Champions to have benefitting from Sainz include Subaru (1995), Toyota (1999) and Citroën (2003, 2004 and 2005).

Sainz began rallying in 1980. He first appeared in the World Rally Championship with Ford during the 1987 season. He left to join Toyota Team Europe, the Japanese marque's rallying arm operating in Cologne, Germany. Despite all previous rallying Toyota Celicas having only ever looked a competitive prospect on highly specialised endurance rallies such as the Safari Rally, the new combination of Toyota and Sainz rapidly rose in competitiveness, to the point of winning its first world rally event, the Acropolis Rally, in June of 1990, with Sainz going on to claim his first world drivers' title later that year and for the first time, breaking the stranglehold on the titles which only the dominant Lancia Deltas team had hirtherto held in the series since the advent of the Group A era of the sport in 1987.

After narrowly failing to defend his title against a resurgent Lancia-mounted Juha Kankkunen in identical Toyota machinery in 1991, his efforts capped by a dramatic roll of his Celica GT4 which left him in a neckbrace, Sainz managed to claim his second overall points victory, aboard the new ST185 Toyota Celica in the 1992 season. In a year that would prove the last for the foreseeable future for Lancia, Sainz managed to score memorable victories on the Safari Rally and on his home asphalt round, the Rally Catalunya, repelling the might of the representatives for the Italian marque, Kankkunen and six-time rally victor, Didier Auriol. Indeed, Auriol's retirement on the final round in Great Britain, combined with Sainz's victory, confirmed the title in favour of the Spaniard.

Such success, however, failed to coerce Sainz into staying with Toyota. Instead, he moved to the private Lancia 'Jolly Club' team with which he would go on to endure a sole, torrid winless season in 1993. Meanwhile, the Italian marque's works refugees Kankkunen and Auriol, switched in the other direction to take his place. The result was a title double for Toyota and Kankkunen in the 1993 World Rally Championship season. Sainz then chose to drove for the then fledgling Subaru World Rally Team in 1994, reaching the unpredecented heights of second in the championship standings for them, behind Auriol. In 1995, he won the Monte Carlo and Portugese rallies and helped Subaru to win the manufacturers' series, although once again, he would be forced to give best in the drivers' title race, this time to young team-mate Colin McRae, whom he was to join on later occasions at both Ford and Citroën.

Sainz responded by rejoining Ford for the 1996 season. He spent two seasons with the squad, aboard the Ford Escort RS Cosworth and latterly, the Escort World Rally Car. He also won the Race of Champions at the end of 1997. He then departed, once again, for Toyota, helping to further the Corolla World Rally Car project that had been instituted in 1997 as part of the Cologne recovery from the embarrassment of exclusion from the world championship on the penultimate round of the 1995 season. He won on his first outing for them, on the 1998 Monte Carlo Rally, and later in the season, added a victory in New Zealand. The seemingly terminal blow to title rival Tommi Mäkinen's chances that was his retirement on the first day of the final event of the year, the Rally Great Britain, seemingly gave the initiative to Sainz, who now only had to score the points associated with finishing fourth, in order to ensure the title. However, he too, just 500 metres from the finish of the very last stage, was then forced to retire, with a mechanical problem. As a result, both Sainz and Toyota gifted their respective titles to rivals Mäkinen and Mitsubishi Ralliart.

A subdued season followed for Sainz in 1999, although it did at least culminate in a departing manufacturers' title for Toyota, by now fostering alternative interests in Formula One. This was the precursor of another, three year stint with Ford, again alongside McRae, beginning with the 2000 season. There, he won the inaugural edition of the Cyprus round of the World Championship, and finished third in the drivers' points standings. He failed to score victory on any rally during the 2001 season, finishing sixth in the championship. In 2002, he inherited the victory of the Rally Argentina, having provisionally finished third, by virtue of the disqualifications of the two leading Peugeots of Marcus Grönholm and Richard Burns. Effectively frozen out along with McRae at Ford, he moved to Citroën for the 2003 and 2004 seasons, with whom he was to score his final world rally victory, at the 2004 Rally Argentina.

Despite formally retiring at the end of the 2004 season, with a possible view to moving into the World Touring Car Championship, he was to actually find himself invited back to the WRC fold on the request of Citroën, to replace the faltering Belgian driver François Duval. Although Duval was soon to reclaim his seat, Sainz's two rallies back in the Citroën impressed many, with the now-43 year old Spaniard posting 4th and 3rd finishing positions respectively.

2006 saw a first participation for Sainz at the wheel of a Volkswagen in that year's Dakar Rally. In 2007, he repeated his attempt with Volkswagen. Following the resignation of Fernando Martin, he even ran, eventually in vain, for the vice-president position at his beloved football club Real Madrid C.F., for which he once trained.

A limited number of 440 Celica GT-Four ST185s, carrying his name on a plaque in the vehicle, and with decals on the outside, were produced in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s, in an attempt to capitalise on Sainz's two championship successes with the works team. It is been said that Sainz still keeps a Celica GT-Four given to him by Toyota, which he drives to Real Madrid games at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

Titles

Carlos Sainz driving a Toyota Corolla WRC on the Monte Carlo Rally

World Rally Championship

External links

• (Spanish) Official website of Carlos Sainz
• Sils Car Museum where the Ford Sierra Cosworth with which Carlos Sainz won the Spain Rally Championship on 1987 can be visited
• Turbocelica.nl Celica Carlos Sainz edition dedicated resource
• Unofficial fansite of Carlos Sainz

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