Williams team principal James Vowles was very careful not to overpromise when approaching Carlos Sainz about signing for the team in 2025.
After losing his seat at Ferrari to seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz had several options available to him to remain in Formula 1.
The four-time race winner was suddenly the strongest driver available to every team in F1’s midfield and aside from Aston Martin, every manufacturer had a vacancy they either needed to fill or were willing to create for the Spaniard.
Sainz turned down a move to Audi – despite his father’s connection to the team – and Alpine when he eventually decided to sign for Williams.
At the time, the team were making some promising noises, particularly after replacing Logan Sargeant with Franco Colapinto as he and Alex Albon were both scoring points semi-regularly.
However, they were thwarted in the Constructors’ Championship by Alpine as the updates they brought at the end of the season – combined with an extraordinary double podium finish at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix – saw Williams sink to ninth in the standings.
Given the resources available to Williams, that’s not a position anyone within the team expects them to be in going into 2025 and beyond.
James Vowles has high hopes for the Grove-based team, although Williams may end up sacrificing 2025 to concentrate on the regulations being introduced next season.
A report from the Spanish outlet Marca, however, suggests that Sainz is more positive than ever after spending just a few weeks with his fifth different Formula 1 team.
Carlos Sainz ‘very motivated’ for 2025 after seeing Williams progress on new F1 car
Sainz has already visited Williams’ factory on at least three occasions and is scheduled to return at least twice more before pre-season testing begins in Bahrain.
According to the report from Marca, Sainz is already ‘very motivated’ having seen how hard the team are working to fix the ‘obvious areas of improvement’.
These are already being worked on or plans are in place to tackle them when the budget allows, something Williams were constantly aware of last year given how many crashes they had to deal with that saw them sail perilously close to breaching the cost cap.
Sainz’s mindset reportedly comes from seeing how Williams staff are approaching the issues with the car that have been identified.
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This is in stark contrast to last year when Williams were relying on a huge Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the parts being designed and built.
The communication between Sainz and Williams staff has been very impressive too, with both parties quick to respond to each other’s feedback.
This was obvious as soon as the Spaniard stepped into the car, with Sainz offering immediate feedback on the 2024 F1 car during a shakedown test in Abu Dhabi.
Williams is in a better place with their 2025 car than this time last year when they didn’t have a spare chassis for the Australian Grand Prix, which forced Sargeant to sit out of the event.
Not only that but this season’s car is expected to reach the weight limit, giving the team a ‘must more promising starting point’.
Carlos Sainz already getting miles under his belt before Williams’ official pre-season test
Pre-season testing in Bahrain doesn’t begin until the end of February but Williams are among several teams who have headed to Barcelona to take part in a TPC [testing of previous cars] run.
Although very few details are known about how the two drivers are faring, Sainz has already impressed Williams staff with his work in the simulator at the factory.
Sainz and Albon have also asked Williams fans to use a new nickname to describe them, and he’ll hope it catches on as quickly as ‘Carlando’ did when he was teammates with Lando Norris at McLaren.
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This may seem trivial, but the 30-year-old is one of the sport’s most popular drivers and creating a good relationship with the team’s fans will be important to begin with if Williams aren’t where they want to be in the pecking order.
Sainz has to see joining Williams as a long-term project as immediate success is very unlikely to happen.
His expert feedback and experience at some of F1’s biggest teams previously in his career should help both parties get what they want out of this new collaboration.
