Villeneuve: Ferrari paying the price for letting Sainz go

Ferrari’s winless 2025 Formula 1 campaign has left fans scratching their heads – and Jacques Villeneuve believes the answer lies not only in the car, but also in the driver Ferrari chose to let go.

The 1997 F1 world champion has suggested that the Scuderia’s decision to replace Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton has been a key factor in the Italian outfit’s lackluster performance.

Despite holding second in the constructors’ championship for much of the season, before ceding the runner-up spot to Mercedes in Azerbaijan last weekend, Ferrari’s position owes more to the consistent point-scoring of both cars than any standout performances.

The SF-25 has been, at best, the fourth-fastest car on the grid, trailing behind the likes of McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull.

And Sainz’s podium in Baku with Williams was a timely reminder of what the Spaniard brings to a team. Villeneuve sees a pattern that Ferrari are now suffering from.

“If you look at his career, when he’s joined a new team, it has taken him a while, half a season maybe, to get up to speed,” Villeneuve told betting website OLBG. “He works at it.

“But in that period, he makes the whole team go better. That’s what happened in every team he’s joined.

“And at some point, he’s often had a teammate that maybe was just a few hundredths quicker. But that teammate was quicker also thanks to the work that Sainz was doing.

“But then Sainz became quicker than his teammate. Even when you look at Leclerc, Leclerc wasn’t ahead of Sainz at Ferrari like a lot of people want to think. And every time he left a team, that team went downhill. Every time. And it’s the same with Ferrari now.”

A new leader at Williams

While Ferrari falter, Williams are enjoying their best run since 2017 – thanks in large part to Sainz, according to Villeneuve, although the exceptional work undertaken by the Grove-based outfit under the leadership of team principal James Vowles has undoubtedly been the most effective component of the team’s transformation.

Nevertheless, Sainz’s arrival coincided with Williams’ steady improvement, culminating in last weekend’s Baku podium, their first in four years.

Villeneuve believes Sainz has become the cornerstone of the project.

“No, Williams haven’t turned a corner because it’s been slow and gradual improvement. Lately, Sainz has shown that he was up there, but something always went wrong like at Zandvoort,” Villeneuve said.

“But if you don’t throw the toys out of the pram, then you’ll be fine. Right now, all this hard work is starting to pay off. It’s also a track that suited Williams.”

• Read also: Vowles reveals Baku ‘reset’ talk that sparked Sainz’s podium

Villeneuve also suggested that Sainz’s newfound role as a team leader at Williams makes him unlikely to seek a move elsewhere.

“Sainz has to be quite happy with what’s going on at Williams,” he said. “Because now he’s perceived as the team builder, as a great addition and he’s loved there. So if you’re going to jump ship you have to think twice.”

Ferrari, meanwhile, continue to search for answers. For Villeneuve, the lesson is clear: in Formula 1, letting a proven team-builder slip away can cost far more than just a few tenths on the stopwatch.

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