The 2025 Formula 1 season will see Carlos Sainz begin racing for his fifth different team in the paddock.
After spells at Toro Rosso, Renault, McLaren and Ferrari, Carlos Sainz will be a Williams driver from this year onwards.
Team principal James Vowles will be delighted that he’s managed to bring in a multiple Grand Prix winner to join Alex Albon to propel the team forward.
Vowles spent months negotiating with Sainz to make sure he secured his desired driver pairing for 2025.
As soon as Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari was announced, the Spaniard became the most desired free agent on the market.
More than half of the drivers on the grid last year were entering the final year of their contracts, meaning up and down the paddock team principals were weighing up a move for Sainz.
In the end, the 30-year-old only received offers from teams outside the leading manufacturers, despite Toto Wolff saying Sainz was an option for Mercedes.
Speaking on Cameron CC’s YouTube channel, expert Peter Windsor believes Sainz will end up regretting choosing to sign for Williams over Sauber.
Audi offered Sainz a contract ahead of taking over from Sauber at the beginning of the 2026 campaign.
Windsor feels Sainz has sacrificed a long-term opportunity with the German manufacturing giants after seeing short-term improvements from Vowles’ outfit.
Peter Windsor thinks Carlos Sainz will regret signing for Williams over Sauber / Audi
Windsor was asked about the talking points going into the start of the season and said: “You’ve got Carlos Sainz leaving Ferrari to go to Williams and yet the team he chose not to go to Sauber / Audi, were much quicker than Williams in the last race of 2024.
“So what will he be thinking over the winter? I did say that the best option for him is a long-term deal with Audi, no question about it and he didn’t take that.
“He’s gone to Williams because of the short-term pace of Williams probably exceeding that of Sauber.
READ MORE: All to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes ties
“With Jonathan Wheatley there now, I can’t see how that team’s going to go downhill.”
Windsor was then comparing Sauber’s future with Williams’, praising the hiring of Wheatley as even more important than bringing in Mattia Binotto before going on to say: “I just can’t see it’s a great thing to have Carlos Sainz having to race against Alex Albon and Albon having to race against Carlos Sainz.
“Similar sorts of drivers, everything looks… I don’t know, I don’t have a great feel for that set up.”
Formula 1 fans have high hopes for Carlos Sainz heading into 2025
Williams finished the 2024 season ninth in the Constructors’ Championship, only outscoring Sauber who had a torrid campaign.
The team were hamstrung by Logan Sargeant who never looked capable of scoring a point, while Albon and Franco Colapinto’s frequent crashes hampered their ability to improve the car as they had to stay below the cost cap.
Vowles has admitted he’s happy to sacrifice the 2025 season with the new regulations arriving the following year his main priority.
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The 2026 campaign offers Williams a fresh start and with Mercedes power units, they’ll believe they have a chance to emulate McLaren’s 2024 title win as a customer team.
F1 fans think Sainz could finish on the podium this year which would be an incredible achievement.
The last time the team did so in a full-length race (as opposed to George Russell’s bizarre podium at Spa in 2021) was in 2017 when Lance Stroll finished third in Azerbaijan.
It would be a real statement of intention for Sainz to return to the podium with his new team.
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