Alex Albon has said that Carlos Sainz came into Williams with a refreshed pursuit of “perfection” for the team.

This comes after Albon commented that he naturally “settled” into the Williams reality with time, now into his fourth season with the team.

Carlos Sainz brought ‘different atmosphere’ to Williams

After Ferrari agreed a multi-year deal with Lewis Hamilton a year in advance of it taking effect, Sainz was forced to find a new home on the grid for F1 2025, and found it at Williams.

Sainz arrived in Grove as a four-time grand prix winner, and his new team-mate Albon has noticed a positive shift in the team “atmosphere” with Sainz joining.

“Carlos is pushing me on and off the track, I think, in terms of his expectations of the team and where he wants the team to go in,” said Albon ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.

“He’s definitely something which I’m very interested in. I think that he’s obviously got a lot of experience from Ferrari, and he knows where the team needs to improve in.

“So for me, there’s definitely a feeling that I’m also learning from Carlos as well, in terms of pure pace and driving wise.

“It is a different atmosphere within the team. We’re pushing each other. But I am really enjoying it. I feel like when you can look at things and study things in detail, and it’s more about just getting laps together, more than anything else.”

Albon admits that Sainz brings with him the intense, hard-hitting questions of the team, something which he took the foot off the gas a little with over time at Williams.

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Asked how Sainz is pushing him off the track, Albon replied: “I think it’s more his approach to perfection and wanting the team to improve.

“I’ve been in the team for three years now, over three years, and there are moments where you kind of settle and accept as time goes on and you kind of just focus on some areas which you know there’s weaknesses in the team, but you kind of you lose that constant naggingness that you get when you’re fresh into a team.

“I remember my time when I was at Red Bull and came into Williams, it was, you know, immediately this and this and this have to improve, whereas now it’s kind of like, ‘Well, I know this is how it is, and I need to focus on these areas’.

“I think in that sense where Carlos is pushing, it’s kind of brought me to also remember and focus on areas that not to settle on, and to push the team forward.”

And progress is vital, as Albon confirmed: “Our goal, end of the year, is to become a top team coming into 2026. And to do that, we do need to make big changes.”

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