The Spanish teenager initially made the headlines in motor racing publications when he joined Michael Schumacher's karting team last year. After more than a year of karting experience, Sainz Jnr. is now ready to make the next step into single-seaters, as reported by the Spanish newspaper AS.
According to the aforementioned source, the youngest of the Sainz family has already signed a contract with Red Bull for the upcoming five years. His first steps out of karting would by joining the Formula BMW in 2010, with Red Bull backing. After that, Sainz would probably move up into the GP2 Series and, hopefully, the Formula One.
Some of the Red Bull junior driver programme graduates that have made it to Formula One in recent years are 4-time Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi. All of those three drivers are expected to become full-time participants in the 2010 Formula One championship.
Out of the three graduates, Vettel even has a shot at winning this year's title (although very slim). His debut in Formula One happened at BMW Sauber, but his first full-time racing spot was offered by Scuderia Toro Rosso, the second of the Red Bull backed teams. As confirmed by team principal Franz Tost, the Faenza based outfit will become, in the future, the perfect place for Red Bull graduates to begin their F1 career.
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