Williams Racing have gone under the radar with how strong their start to the season has been.
Alex Albon currently sits sixth in the drivers’ championship after scoring points in back-to-back races.
Williams secured a double points finish at the Chinese Grand Prix with Carlos Sainz sneaking into P10.
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Sainz impressed during pre-season testing but has had a difficult start to his 2025 campaign.
He’s been outqualified by Albon at every opportunity so far this year and only scored points in China after both Ferrari drivers and Pierre Gasly were disqualified.
Sainz was baffled at the start of the race weekend as he couldn’t get to grips with the FW47.
Ted Kravitz addressed what was going wrong for the Spaniard after listening to his final radio messages in China.
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Ted Kravitz notices Carlos Sainz’s problem at Williams during the Chinese Grand Prix
Kravitz was reflecting on how each team performed in Shanghai on Ted’s Notebook and when he reached James Vowles’ team, he said: “A good day for Williams because they have scored some points.
“But the more concern is about Carlos Sainz. Lovely Carlos Sainz is having a really torrid time at the moment because at the end of the race, he was congratulated sort of by his engineer, saying the usual things, we’ll get better next race and I know you’ve got the pace in you.
“And Carlos’ response was, ‘It’s really difficult, I’m faster than this. There’s lots of work to do still, I’m faster than this,’ and that is true.
First of many 💙 pic.twitter.com/OAUsTaMNpi
— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) March 23, 2025
“So, something’s not going right with the Carlos Sainz [to] Williams move at the moment.
“They weren’t sure if they had done enough to cure the tyre wear but they probably had with Alex Albon.
“Sainz was up one [position] early on, pitted on lap 18, then passed Gasly. Alex Albon held out quite long on the medium tyres, he said, ‘Don’t hold me out too much,’ but delivered two [six] points on his 29th birthday, well done for him.”
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Carlos Sainz pulling his weight at Williams despite slow start compared to Alex Albon
Sainz sits 14th in the drivers’ championship right now at this very early stage of the campaign.
Oliver Bearman, Nico Hulkenberg and the incredibly unfortunate Yuki Tsunoda all sit above Sainz but he won’t be concerned about the standings right now.
Vowles praised Sainz for his contribution in Australia despite crashing out on the opening lap.
He was caught off guard by a safety car setting in wet conditions but helped shape Albon’s strategy as he secured a brilliant P5 finish.
Williams fans are already impressed with Sainz despite a tricky start to the year.
Every piece of feedback he and Albon give the team over the coming months will be taken into account for their 2026 car when they hope they’ll be doing more than just competing for points every weekend.
