'Trick question' that confirmed F1 star Carlos Sainz Jr's romance with model
By Merryn Porter |
Spanish Formula One driver Carlos Sainz Jr is used to living life in the fast lane.
So it is perhaps not surprising the speed in which he moved on after splitting from his long-term girlfriend Isa Hernจขez last year.
Sainz Jr, who has been sidelined from the racetrack after a bout of appendicitis this month, has been linked to Scottish model Rebecca Donaldson since the middle of last year.
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Carlos Sainz Jr, 29, has racing in his blood, as the son of former world champion rally car driver Carlos Sainz Sr.
Sainz Jr was born in Madrid, Spain, on September 1, 1994, and started racing karts. ?By 2008, he was the Asia-Pacific KF3 winner, and the following year he won the Junior Monaco Kart Cup.
In 2010, he joined the Formula BMW European competition and the Red Bull Junior Team program.
In 2012 he moved to Formula Three for both the British and Euro Series championships, winning four races and scoring pole position in the British championship.
He moved on to the GP3 Series and then Formula Renault 3.5, before breaking into Formula One as a test driver in 2013.
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His season debut came in 2015 when he partnered with Max Verstappen in the Scuderia Toro Rosso team at the Australian Grand Prix, where he finished in ninth place.
In 2017, he was loaned to Renault, where he remained until 2019, when he moved to McLaren. That year he made it onto his first Formula One winner's podium after finishing third at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
After moving to Ferrari in 2021, he won the 2022 British Grand Prix and followed this up with a win at the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.
Off the track, ?Sainz Jr was in a long-term relationship with Spanish journalist Isa Hernจขez from 2016 until 2023, when she confirmed they had split.
Hernจขez has hinted on social media that their split was messy and there has been speculation about the timing.
Either way, it wasn't long before Sainz Jr was linked with Scottish model Rebecca Donaldson, after the two were reportedly spotted together in Italy during the European summer.
Donaldson, 28, of Scone, in Scotland, got her big break when her mother entered her in a local modelling competition in 2011 when she was 17.
The 175cm Donaldson ?was still at school when she won the local Face of 2011 modelling competition.
The Daily Record reported at the time that Donaldson competed against 13 other girls in the final.
"I am really excited to have won and am really looking forward to entering the Top Model UK competition," she said at the time.
"My family were all very pleased for me, they were jumping around and stuff!"
Not a lot is known about Donaldson's early modelling career, or her dating life, but in a 2021 interview with Vestd, she talked about starting her own fashion label, MUSE Activewear, during the COVID pandemic.
"I launched MUSE activewear in October 2020 during the UK lockdown," she said.
"I was spending many days and hours during lockdown feeling a little purposeless. So, I decided to pursue my dream of starting a clothing brand.
"I knew I wanted to create something that not only I would wear and be proud of putting my name against, but also something that was missing from the market จC affordable, good-quality products that are also very wearable day-to-day, as I found I struggled to find items that covered all these aspects."
Donaldson also admitted during the interview that she had "never had a 9-5 job" and only ever lasted six months in part-time jobs.
"This is probably part of the reason why I decided to start my own business," she said.
By April 2022, Donaldson was linked with reality TV star Scott Disick, the former partner of Kourtney Kardashian, after they were spotted together in Hollywood.
That same month, the pair made their red carpet debut at the premiere of The Kardashians.?
They reportedly dated for two months, and holidayed in Miami, before splitting.
In October 2022, Donaldson snagged the cover of Marie Claire Mexico.
It is not known exactly when Donaldson and Sainz Jr first met or began dating, but they were first spotted together in Milan in June 2023.
The couple was reportedly seen together at a number of events before cyber sleuths guessed the pair were holidaying together in the Bahamas after they each posted similar pics to their respective Instagram accounts on the same day. ?
Very few photos of the pair exist, with only a handful of them at various F1 events.
In October last year, the two were photographed embracing and kissing after he qualified for the Mexican Grand Prix.
The following month, they were photographed entering the paddock for practice ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
It was in the lead-up to the event that fellow F1 driver Charles Leclerc asked Sainz Jr who he would marry while in Vegas,
"That's a trick question," replied Sainz Jr.
"My current girlfriend."
Then in March this year, the pair were photographed ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, where Sainz Jr finished third.
It was reported that members of the Sainz family, including his mother Reyes and sisters Ana and Blanca, were in the audience when the model walked the runway during Madrid Fashion Week in February.?
The couple has not yet posted photographs of each other on Instagram, where he has more than nine million followers.
He recently posted a photo which showed him in a hospital bed after he suffered a bout of appenticitis, requiring surgery.
It means he missed the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and may be out of action for the upcoming Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
?Sainz Jr, who has an estimated net worth of $75 million, is due to leave Ferrari at the end of this year to make way for F1 poster boy Lewis Hamilton.
