Carlos Sainz says Williams has exceeded his expectations as he didn’t think they would be this competitive as they are in 2025 F1 season.
It was called a downward step when Sainz moved to Williams from Ferrari in F1 2025. In some ways, it is a downward step considering the Italian outfit ranks at the top and the British team is mostly in the midfield. The idea behind the move was to build the team keeping 2026 in mind.
Much like Ferrari, there is heritage behind the Williams name, which has seen its glory days in the past. This is one of big reasons for Sainz to get into the F1 team and take it back to the top via the 2026 change. It is an ultimate test due to limited resources that the team has.
Sainz has felt it as well, but the results have already exceeded his expectations. Even though he hasn’t had the luck to score as much as teammate Alexander Albon, the Spaniard is impressed by the raw pace, where they have taken the fight to Ferrari, Mercedes and at times Red Bull too.
“Yeah, I think for me the number one thing is always new performance and the performance is there,” said Sainz to media. “I see good things coming and this year’s car performance if anything has exceeded my expectations of what I thought Williams could deliver for 2025. And I insist, if we would be putting things together now, I think we could be both drivers P8, P9 or P7, P8 in the drivers’ championship and pulling away, but we are not ready yet to execute weekends in that manner.
“So, we are both getting the teams for the team that the team deserves or the car deserves let’s say, but I’m not worried because I know every member of the team knows this and we are all working on putting things together and even if now at the present time everything looks extremely frustrating and difficult to handle, it’s been 12 races where obviously there’s been a lot of ups and downs, but I’m confident on the trajectory we’re on and where we’re heading.”
As noted above, Sainz highlighted the tools lack on Williams’ side than Ferrari. His workload his higher certainly, but it is something that he is enjoying. It is the very reason that the British team hired him to help them take that step forward from his experiences at the top teams.
He hopes that the current issues will be forgotten in the longrun when the team is at a higher spot. “Yeah, well the workload is obviously higher than with any other team that I’ve been to just because there’s still a lot of things that or a lot of tools that we’re lacking, that we’re trying to develop and a lot of things that we still obviously need the drivers to be involved,” continued Sainz.
“Maybe we don’t have the whole setup as I used to have in Ferrari with the simulator, with the reserve drivers, with all the simulation tools a top team could have and that involves a lot more of the driver time to do things, so it’s also obviously a high working load year for me as a driver, which I’m here for that. I know Williams also hired me for that capability that I have to help on those areas.
“I enjoy that side of my job and I’m keen to see the results come through in the future. I’m confident the results are going to come at some point. I don’t know when, it might be after summer break, it might be the rest of the season or it might be for the last quarter of the season or it might be for next year, but I’m very confident on the work we’re doing back at base and the work we’re doing at the racetrack to improve the race team to know that at some point all this work is going to pay off and we’re going to start forgetting about all the issues that we’re currently having,” summed up Sainz.
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