Carlos Sainz insists he has no second thoughts about his high-profile switch to Williams, despite a rocky start to life at Grove.
The Spaniard, who left Ferrari after four seasons to make way for Lewis Hamilton, admits the results have been frustrating but says the team has already surpassed his expectations while showing signs of a promising future.
It’s been anything but clear sailing for the 30-year-old who has suffered his unfair share of misfortune over the summer, having scored only a single top ten finish in the last five races.
Sainz admits that when he signed for Williams ahead of the 2025 season, he did so with modest short-term goals and ambitious long-term hopes.
A Solid Midfield Car
“My hopes were that Williams would be a solid midfield car in '25 that allowed me to fight for points and not be at the back end of the grid,” he told RACER.
“Just somewhere around the top 10 that I could still have fun playing around for points – which might sound stupid, but it's still better and it's a lot more something to go for than fighting for P16, P17, where 24 races like that can get frustrating for a driver.”
Sainz added that the real test for Williams lies in its trajectory under the new rules era.
“And then the other hopes were still TBC, which is '26, '27, '28. Where can Williams get to? And my feeling and my hope is that we can be championship contenders in the late part of the years that I just mentioned.”
For now, he’s reassured by what he’s seen.
“Part of it we know and it's been more than achieved, which is we are a very solid midfield car. The rest is the TBC of the hopes.”
“The fears were being at the back end of the grid and finding a team that doesn’t have the potential to actually be a championship contender. But I must say that that part is also covered. I see good potential and a very strong project to actually be competitive in the future.”
Encouraged but Frustrated
Sainz currently sits just 16th in the championship after 12 rounds, with his best finishes being eighth at Saudi Arabia and Imola. But the Spaniard maintains that the underlying progress of Williams makes his decision worthwhile.
“I don't regret the move, for sure. And I'm actually pretty encouraged for what I've seen,” he said.
“2025 has exceeded my expectations in terms of car performance and what the team is capable of doing. So, I'm very comfortable and calm with the decision.
“I'm just frustrated that the results haven't been better because the feeling is saying the opposite, but the results for one reason or another are not coming.”
Part of that frustration comes from knowing his pace is there, even if the points don’t reflect it.
“I like seeing the potential because I see that I also have it,” he said.
“I think I would be more worried if I was three or four tenths off Alex every weekend and not being able to match his pace, and see him getting the P6s, the P7s, the P5s, getting all the points and me just struggling for pace in the back.
“But the fact that I am sometimes quicker, sometimes in the same tenth, sometimes one tenth slower than Alex every weekend, I know I can get the same results – sometimes better, sometimes a bit worse, but nowhere near the difference in points and results that we're getting these 12 races, for example.”
It leaves him with a peculiar sense of both promise and underachievement.
“It’s a bit of a weird feeling because I feel competitive. I feel fast. I feel like when I put a lap together in the Williams, I still have a lot of lap time and potential,” he concluded.
“But I think we've maximised the weekend in one or two occasions out of 12 – which in my ratio of a year in F1, that's very little in my experience.”
Despite the lack of headline results, Sainz is confident that Williams’ project under the guidance of team principal James Vowles has him in the right place at the right time – solidly midfield now, with eyes firmly set on the front in the years to come.
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