Carlos Sainz rounded out his 2024 Formulation 1 marketing campaign at Ferrari with one remaining podium for the Scuderia, which dropped him for the brand new season in favour of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. That, the Spaniard thought, can be his remaining podium for a while as he moved to Williams, who completed ninth final yr.
Forward of his debut with the Grove outfit, Sainz warned followers that ‘you are not going to see me on the rostrum’ over the course of the 2025 season – though this was a promise that he would break earlier than the tip of the yr.
His first season with Williams and new team-mate Alex Albon acquired off to a rocky begin, with Sainz failing to complete the primary lap of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. And whereas Sainz picked up his first level of the yr in China, a tricky Japanese race adopted and one other retirement in Bahrain summed up a tough begin to his Williams profession.
However Sainz was undeterred, and shortly admitted that he was “getting in the suitable course with the set-up and driving”, after he out-qualified his team-mate for the primary time in Saudi Arabia. The Jeddah race additionally kicked off a powerful run for Sainz, as he picked up factors in 5 out of six grands prix – displaying off the progress that Williams had remodeled the winter break.
Carlos Sainz out-qualified Williams team-mate Alex Albon for the primary time in Saudi Arabia
Photograph by: Peter Fox / Getty Photographs
After this, nevertheless, Sainz entered a tough patch in his season as a mechanical failure meant he missed the beginning in Austria and he failed to complete contained in the factors on the following 5 grands prix – aside from sixth place within the Spa Dash.
Outcomes have been what the Spaniard wanted within the second half of the season because the hole to his team-mate widened, and Sainz quickly delivered. In Azerbaijan, he grew to become the one Williams racer to step foot on an F1 podium this yr – the primary to take action since George Russell within the rain-affected 2021 Belgian GP, and earlier than that it was Lance Stroll at Baku 2017.
His first podium of the yr got here courtesy of a third-place end in Baku, the place Sainz certified second and, regardless of succumbing to Russell, held off a charging Andrea Kimi Antonelli to take third on the flag. This was adopted by one other third-place end within the Austin dash and, to high it off, one other third on the penultimate grand prix: Qatar.
It wasn’t all excellent news, nevertheless, as he shared the blame for a race-ending crash with Antonelli within the US GP. There was additionally an incident with Liam Lawson in Mexico, which finally ended his race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez prematurely.
Regardless of these moments, Sainz concluded his first season at Williams with 64 championship factors – simply 9 shy of the tally picked up by Albon. He additionally took the bragging rights as the one driver so as to add to Williams’ trophy cupboard this yr, and outperformed Albon 14-9 in qualifying head-to-heads for grands prix.
Sainz’ kind over the course of the 2025 season helped Williams to fifth, its finest end since 2017, and will have left some at Ferrari questioning why he was let go.
Learn Additionally:
We would like your opinion!
What would you prefer to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Group
