Carlos Sainz has stressed the need for both he and team-mate Alex Albon to “sacrifice” themselves to help drive Williams forward in F1 2025.

Sainz is gearing up for his first season as a Williams driver, having joined the Grove-based team on a multi-year contract over the winter.

Carlos Sainz prepared to make ‘sacrifices’ for Williams in F1 2025

The four-time race winner was forced to make way at Ferrari for seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, whose shock move from Mercedes was announced a year ago.

Sainz partners Albon, a fellow product of Red Bull’s famed driver academy, who is entering his fourth full season with Williams having joined the team at the start of 2022.

James Vowles, the Williams team principal, has described the combination of Sainz and Albon – nicknamed ‘Carbono’ in a fusion of the drivers’ names – as one of the strongest driver pairings on the F1 2025 grid.

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In an interview with F1’s official YouTube channel, Sainz admitted to being surprised at how “super open” Albon has been with him since his arrival at Williams at the end of last year.

And he claimed that continued transparency will be key to Williams’ progress after a disappointing ninth-placed finish in the 2024 Constructors’ standings.

Describing his relationship with Albon, Sainz said: “I’ve never seen a guy that is so genuine and so open and so willing to make progress with the team and hear me, tell me about what he knows already about the team, about the car, sharing with me.

“[He’s asking me]: ‘What do you think about this? What do you think about that?’

“And I bounce back and ask him so many other questions.

“So far, we’re having an incredible relationship, super open, and I think we both know it: if we want to make this team competitive again and fight for wins again, we just need – between him and me – to push in the same direction.

“Maybe to sacrifice a bit of our own driver secrets or driver things that you would keep for yourself to maybe this time share them to see if we can have a faster progress.”

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Albon added: “I think that Carlos is a very proven driver and I think he’s just come off one of his best years in F1.

“So I’m confident in myself and I’m excited to have a great team mate who I can learn from.

“I hope I can bring something to him as well. And in the end, the direction of the team needs to go forwards for the future.

“I think we’re going to work really well together. Just from what we’ve spoken about and what we like in the car, it’s quite similar.”

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