Carlos Sainz lays down short-term goals to see-through F1 2025 season, as finishing fifth in the championship will be fulfilling as he states.
It has been a mixed run for Sainz after joining Williams from Ferrari in F1 2025. He is 16th in the standings with 16 points, while teammate Alexander Albon is eighth with 54. The adjustment has taken up more time than he anticipated, with luck also not supporting him at any step.
For this reason, Sainz wants to focus on getting clean weekends in the short-term to see-through the 2025 F1 season. He has had to make too many changes to get the set-up right and so, the idea will be to have a consistent set-up to maximise the race weekends.
“From my side, for the shorter term, I’ll just focus on weekend executions, there is nothing really we can do to the aero or the set-up of the car in the end,” said Sainz to media. “I tried three or four different set-ups in Hungary to try and find an extra around tracks like that. I ended up reverting to the car that gave me a very competitive qualifying in Miami, Imola and at the beginning of the season when I was very strong in quali.
“Honestly, it gave me a very strong quali in Hungary for the car that we have this weekend. The problem is I think we’ve got a bit outdeveloped and a bit into a track where it’s very difficult for us. So, second half of the season, I’ll probably just seek consistency with the set-up, consistency with the car and just make sure that we execute clean weekends like Hungary was a clean weekend, unfortunately it came at a worst possible track for us.
“But if we had a clean weekend like this in Spa, Miami and Imola, we would have scored a lot of points, so that’s where we need to improve in the second half of the season, to have clean weekends when the car is up there. It’s been a very strong start to our time together in terms of whatever we want to develop the team, the car, interaction with Alex, with James, I think we are, honestly, all very aligned, very optimistic moving forward.
“The problem is we are stuck in the middle of the year where we cannot actually develop the car that has clear weaknesses – some very good strengths but also some very good weaknesses,” summed up Sainz, who reckons retaining fifth in the constructors’ championship will be a good result for Williams after finishing only ninth in 2024.
It will be a good stepping stone for 2026, where hopes are high. “Yeah, for me it would be, I think, as a team a successful year to score fifth in the Championship and show massive progress,” continued Sainz. “Again, it would show a positive direction of the team, the gathering momentum into 2026 with all the big changes that are happening and everything that we are investing into 2026.
“For me it’s important that even if I’m taking my time to adapt to the team and the car, I don’t think I took my time to adapt to the car. I think I was quite quick straight away. It’s just getting results and putting things together that has been a struggle since the beginning of the year. Still in Race 14, it doesn’t seem like we’re getting any better at putting things together, but it will come at some point. In the meantime, I’ll just keep my head down and I’m pretty sure the result is about to come.”
Here’s Alexander Albon on Williams needing to balance
Here’s Carlos Sainz on Williams need philosophy change