Carlos Sainz has enjoyed a slow start to the Spaniard’s spell at Williams, but he knows clearly how the multiple-time Grand Prix winner can succeed at the team from Grove.
The 30-year-old joined Williams ahead of the 2025 F1 season after Ferrari opted to let Sainz leave in order to create a space for Lewis Hamilton. He had spent four seasons at Maranello, which returned all four of his race wins in the pinnacle of motorsport plus six pole positions.
Last year was even the Madrid native’s best campaign at the Scuderia as Sainz scooped 290 points, two Grand Prix victories and nine podiums. He had not scored multiple wins or more than 246 points in a single season in red before Ferrari chose to replace Sainz with Hamilton.
Yet returning to F1’s midfield this season after joining Williams has only seen Sainz score five points in the first five rounds. He even only got points on merit for the first time at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when Sainz finished in eighth place ahead of teammate Alex Albon in P9.
Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon rely ‘a lot on data’ to succeed at Williams
Sainz’s qualifying in Saudi Arabia particularly impressed Emerson Fittipaldi after the Williams driver secured P6 on the grid ahead of Hamilton. His speed even transferred into the race as Williams asked Sainz to keep Albon in DRS range in Jeddah to help him fend off Isack Hadjar.
Their teamplay to deny the Racing Bulls rookie is not the only way that Sainz and Albon have worked together to succeed at Williams, either. Sainz feels he and the London-born Thai like to adopt the same attitude of using the data that Williams gather to find more performance.
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“We both rely a lot on data,” Sainz told AutoMoto.it. “Some drivers rely more on sensations, without going into the whys and wherefores. We, on the other hand, want a different path, focusing on different aspects.
“Our communication is very open, much more than it normally is. We discuss honestly the direction we need to take with the car. We are very aligned.”
Carlos Sainz has the exact opposite stance on using data as Max Verstappen at Red Bull
Albon has led Williams since Sainz joined the Grove squad with the Spaniard having to adapt to a new car and different methods. The 29-year-old has recorded 20 points after scoring in four of the first five Grands Prix and all 20 came purely on merit, unlike Sainz’s P10 in China.
Team boss James Vowles also thinks Sainz joining Williams has made Albon more ‘focused’ as the ex-Red Bull product knew the Madrid native would be a ‘benchmark’ after his results for Ferrari – whose double disqualification in Shanghai would promote Sainz into the points.
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But while Albon and Sainz both like to ‘rely’ on data to help them improve at Williams, their approach is the complete opposite of Max Verstappen. The Red Bull star believes relying on data would be ‘wrong’, and his method has led to the Dutchman winning four drivers’ titles.
“To be honest, if they stick a new front wing on, I don’t need to look at the data to confirm,” Verstappen explained, via the F1 website, in January 2021 – the year of his first drivers’ title.
“I go out, understeer, oversteer, whatever it does, more mid-corner grip, or whatever, then the data is just for them to look at to confirm what I said. I don’t need to open my laptop to say, ‘Oh no, it actually did that’. That would be wrong.
“You don’t need to look at the data to make car changes, you speak to the engineer – at least I have that with my engineer now – you don’t need to look at each corner. It works. I don’t need to open my laptop throughout the weekend.”
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