"There is a fine line between recklessness and courage."

So sang Paul McCartney on the opener to his Grammy nominated 2005 album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. It's a lyric and a song I've always enjoyed, and one I go back to often in moments such as the one witnessed on Sunday afternoon in Shanghai.

"Everyone thought I was completely mad!" Carlos Sainz Jr. laughed at the flag, drenched in sweat, a broad grin plastered across his face.

As the field flew past him at lights out and he tiptoed around the track, he'd questioned his decision. More so when he ran wide at Turn 1. Compounded when he then spun. Cemented when he clattered the barriers trying to get going again, a moment which 99 times out of 100 would have seen him eliminated from the race.

But the seeming recklessness of the decision would be vindicated moments later. Soon everyone was switching their strategies to be on the same tire as the man who'd fallen to last based on the courage of his convictions. He'd wind up seventh on the day, mixing it with the best three teams in the sport in a car which, in many other hands, would have no right to be where it so regularly finds itself.

But these performances are no longer surprising. They've become the normal expectations of a driver who is quickly gaining traction and plaudits as one of the very best in Formula 1.

The funny thing is, I never really rated Carlos Sainz Jr. in the early days. I first came across him when he was enduring a tough British F3 campaign. What was most disappointing was that he'd looked so good when he shot into Formula BMW and was crowned Formula Renault champion. The questionable nature of his racecraft pulled through from F3 to his GP3 campaign on which I commentated. For while Dany Kvyat – the man he'd beaten to Formula Renault honors – swept to the title, Carlos slumped to season's end in 10th place, over 100 points in arrears of the champion while racing for the same team. He'd go on to win World Series in 2014, pretty much obliterating the field, but it was that lack of consistency over his career that had left me somewhat underwhelmed by the time he arrived in Formula 1.

But in a little over two years, every single thing I've seen of him both on and off track has proven to me how wrong I was to ever doubt him. There exists today no doubt in my mind that Sainz has everything at his disposal to write history over the coming decade and more. He is an exceptional talent. One of the very finest in our sport today.

The motorsport world is fixated with the praise it heaps on Max Verstappen, and rightly so. The excitement he generates with the manner in which he races and the seemingly impossible, almost computer-game moves he is able to pull off, make him one of the most exhilarating racers we've witnessed in a generation or more. Verstappen is a driver who I've dubbed a "once in a lifetime talent" from the first time I ever saw him drive. Critically acclaimed in almost every quarter, there seems no end to the possibilities that stand before him.

And yet, there but for the grace of God, might Carlos Sainz have now stood.

Verstappen leads Sainz, Interlagos 20152015 saw both Verstappen and Sainz make their Formula 1 debuts for Toro Rosso. Over the course of that season their qualifying performances were matched almost equally, the balance tipped 10:9 in Verstappen's favor but with Sainz pulling out a season's-best fifth over Verstappen's sixth. In two-car finishes, again Verstappen edged it, but only just at 5:4. In terms of DNFs, it ran 7:5 in favor, if you can refer to it as such, for Sainz. Yet while each of Sainz's seven retirements in 2015 were caused by issues out of his control, two of Verstappen's five (Monaco and Silverstone) were self-inflicted.

Sainz qualified seventh on debut and scored points. Verstappen showed the world the overtaking prowess which would become his hallmark in Malaysia en route to his first points. Spain saw both drivers outqualify the Red Bulls, leading Helmut Marko to remark that the Toro Rosso drivers were "something extraordinary."

Verstappen's heroics, however, were what really made the headlines. His two hard-fought fourth-place finishes and the points that came along with his season-ending run of form saw him amass 49 to the Spaniard's 18. Just as Verstappen's form had started to rise, Sainz's had started to drop. While reliability undoubtedly played its part, Sainz himself suffered two heavy crashes at Russia and Austin just as his teammate was going on a consistent points-scoring run.

But to those who'd watched closely, and those within the team, it was clear that there was very little to separate the drivers by season's end. Indeed, with only one logical route out of Toro Rosso, the fact the two drivers were so closely matched had led to the beginnings of a rivalry between the duo, which came to a head in Singapore when Verstappen refused to follow team orders and allow the faster Sainz through.

The intensity of the rivalry only increased at the start of 2016, when this time Verstappen was the one who felt he should have been allowed past Sainz in Australia. Frustrated with the situation, he ended up hitting his teammate, ironically hurting his own race far more than that of the car ahead.

By the time the Russian Grand Prix came around, the competition between the two had become so intense that Verstappen's side of the garage broke free, kicked back against agreed-upon team policy in qualifying and set in place the circumstances which would result in Verstappen's move to Red Bull Racing and Franz Tost's Night of the Long Knives against those who'd dared to move against him in Sochi.

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