Sainz finishes all the races in 2021 and is close to a historic top 5

Carlos Sainz made his debut in the 2021 Formula 1 season as the regular driver of the most successful team in history, Ferrari. The Spaniard signed with those from Maranello in May 2020, even before starting a campaign that was postponed due to the pandemic.

During the season that still lay ahead with McLaren, the man from Madrid showed why the Italians trusted him. Sainz achieved sixth position in the championship, with a heroic podium finish at Monza, where he narrowly missed out on his first victory in the category.

His 105 points helped the Woking side third in the constructors’ standings, their goal from the start. However, the Spaniard faced the challenge of putting on the red jumpsuit in the highest category of motorsport.

After a lousy season for ‘Il Cavallino’, the duo formed by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had the mission of reviving the Italians from the ashes. Finally, and thanks to their great performances on the track, both drivers were able to secure the bronze in constructors for Ferrari, which means a good handful of millions for the coffers of those from Maranello.

However, the most remarkable thing about Sainz’s 2021, in addition to the four podiums he added, was that he became the only driver to finish all the races of the season. If this is difficult, it is even more difficult to score in each of them, and it only failed in Portugal and France, at the beginning of the year.

Adding the 22 races of 2021 and the last seven appointments of 2020, Sainz reached the incredible figure of 29 consecutive grands prix seeing the checkered flag. This is the seventh best streak in the entire history of Formula 1, tied with Fernando Alonso, who did it from the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix to the Belgian Grand Prix the following year.

Carlos Sainz has surpassed drivers of the stature of Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button or Max Verstappen in this ranking, all of them world champions, but who have never finished so many races in a row.

 

The Ferrari man began this streak at the Nurburgring, at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix, still with McLaren, and remains in force after the last test in Abu Dhabi this year. Ahead of him are others like Kimi Raikkonen (30), Nick Heidfeld (33) or Daniel Ricciardo (34).

However, the figure that Lewis Hamilton scored at the Italian Grand Prix in 2021 with 62 consecutive races finishing (the one he missed due to COVID-19 at Shakir’s 2020 GP is not counted) seems more distant.

Even so, Sainz reaffirmed himself as one of the most reliable drivers in the category, even completing 1,294 of the 1,297 laps that took place in the 2021 Formula 1 season.

Best streaks of drivers finishing races consecutively in F1: