Carlos Sainz tempers expectations amid Williams hype

Following an impressive performance in pre-season testing—albeit with the usual caveats—Carlos Sainz has offered a message to fans, tempering expectations as he enters his first season with Williams.

After four years at Ferrari, where he secured four wins and 19 podiums, the Spaniard was displaced by Lewis Hamilton after the Briton’s surprise exit from Mercedes. With seats in the top four teams unavailable, he opted for a multi-year contract with the Grove outfit, a team that finished ninth in the Constructors’ championship with just 17 points last season. 

But big things are happening at Williams. Now under the leadership of James Vowles, the squad is almost unrecognisable compared to before 2023, the year the former Mercedes strategist took over. Gone are the spreadsheets and outdated workflows, with them being replaced by new strategies formed by Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry and software from their new title partner Atlassian. 

There is now potential growing from within the team that has seen its workforce expand by 50% in the last two years, and Sainz recognises this. 

 “You’re going to see us progress forwards but what I’ve always said is we’ve put our focus into 2026, ’27 and ’28,” Vowles confirmed during the car reveal at Silverstone earlier this year. “We’re developing elements that come online as a result of that. We have this year huge infrastructure changes that have come online.

“We were 700 people, now over 1,050 today and we’re not finished yet. There’s a lot more in the pipeline. That’s all happening in the background. What I want to make sure that we’re doing is not just the short-term, little bit of gain at the cost of the long term.

“We’re here to make sure we’re back to winning championships, to do that it will take a little bit more time but that’s the investment we’re doing. But watch our pathway, this should be a good one this year.”

During the second day of pre-season testing, the former Ferrari driver set a time of 1:29.348, just 0.169s off Max Verstappen’s 2024 Bahrain pole time. This certainly raised a few eyebrows, with Williams now firmly on the radar heading into the 2025 season.

But what does the driver himself believe is on the cards this season? Talking to Marca, he grounded the expectations around him and his team.

“I’m sure you won’t see me on the podium or in the top five this year, so don’t get too motivated, but at least make sure that I haven’t come to Williams to pass the time, to let the years go by, to be in the middle of the grid. 

“If I’ve come to Williams it’s to get this team moving forward and I trust that I can do that, and that the first thing yesterday at least serves to show people that I’m here for it, we’re going for it,” he said (translated from Spanish via Google Translate).

Questioned regarding his contributions to the car over testing, Sainz confirmed that his focus has been on improving race pace.

“Well, above all, I think that when you look at the middle of the grid last year, we were not that far away, a Haas, a Williams, in some qualifying races, they were quite close at times, the Q1s were impressive, we were all half a second or seven tenths away, and my contribution comes more in the race pace, because then the gap opens up a lot, you lose a second per lap, you degrade more, and that’s where I think I can contribute a little more and help the team try to improve the race pace.”

Only when the drivers finish qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix will we know where the team falls. The race is set for March 16 at 15:00 track time, with qualifying taking place on March 15 from 16:00 to 17:00.