Despite their early-season woes, Carlos Sainz believes Williams has all the ingredients to experience a McLaren-style resurgence in the coming years.
The out-going Ferrari driver’s future was a topic of intense speculation for several months. After being tentatively linked to several teams up and down the grid, Sainz finally confirmed his move to Williams for 2025 and beyond at the start of the summer break.
Speaking to the media in Zandvoort, Sainz offered some insight into the factors that influenced his decision to join the Grove-based team.
“Yeah, well, first of all, I think it was important for me to take the decision before the summer break,” he said. “It’s been a very tough, let’s say, seven months of my career where I had to deal with everything that happened in January.
“Obviously having to perform and deliver as a Ferrari driver in a high-pressure, high-tension environment (…) in combination with having to decide my future at the same time that you’re talking to so many other teams. And analysing and putting everything on the table at the same time that you’re competing.
“That’s why I put myself the target to take the decision before the break. And when I took the decision, I wanted to be 100% convinced. That’s why I gave myself plenty of time.”
Sainz revealed that productive discussions with Williams left him feeling optimistic about the team’s future.
“I took that decision because Williams is a team that from the beginning I had very good feelings and very good conversations with,” he said. “I feel like they are a team very committed to Formula 1 with a very strong project in the future. Very strong leadership and the will to bring back a historic Formula 1 team with the pedigree that Williams has.
“Back to the front is something that motivates me. It motivated me when I went to McLaren, when I went to Ferrari, when Ferrari was down in the grid after a tough 2020. And it motivates me now to do a project like Williams. I cannot wait and I think it’s going to be an interesting few years in my career.”
Although Williams has shown occasional promise, their performance has been largely inconsistent in recent years, leaving them battling for points with other backmarkers. They’ve had a particularly difficult start to the 2024 season with an overweight car and a spare chassis crisis that plagued them throughout the spring rounds. Williams’ situation is unlikely to majorly improve next year, meaning Sainz may have to endure at least one season fighting for positions lower on the grid than he’s accustomed to.
Nevertheless, Sainz remains confident in the team’s longer-term plan.
“Formula 1 for me is a lot about extracting the maximum out of the car,” he said. “The result really is not purely dependent on the driver, it’s dependent on the machinery you drive. It’s all about how am I going to also help Williams, how am I going to help the project move forward.
“That really motivates me, (…) I want to feel like I can help. Such a historical team like Williams, that has such a clear vision… they are super committed to bringing the team back to the front with very clear investment partners. I think it’s something that was important for me. For 2025, I know they might not win some more podiums but I still think we can do a good job.”
The Spaniard added that he was looking for a team that could provide stability.
“I took the decision around the Spa week, (…) so it was late,” Sainz said.
“But I’ve always had the feeling during all those negotiations, I always kept Williams in the back of my head because I always had that good feeling with James [Vowles] and the investment group, Dorilton. (…) I’ve learned over the years in Formula 1 to trust in my feeling about people also.”
Sainz credits team principal James Vowles for pushing the team in the right direction, admitting Vowles’s vision for the future played a major role in his decision to sign with Williams. He believes Williams has the potential to make substantial progress in the near future, as McLaren has in the years following Sainz’s departure.
“I remember when I left McLaren in 2020, I had the feeling that the team was moving forward and was going to be successful in the future having spent time working with Zak Brown and Andrea Stella,” Sainz recalled. “When I left McLaren, I said they might not be winning next year or the following, but this team with these people are going to be winning soon. And four years later, they’re performing at an incredibly high level.
“And if I had that feeling at that time, and now I have this feeling about people and the culture in Williams, I need to trust that feeling and this is what I committed to.”
Vowles himself has spoken highly of Sainz, admitting that the Spaniard was one of his top choices to replace Logan Sargeant.
“It was very important,” Sainz said. “Obviously, he’s the leader of the project and he has the vision. And he shared that vision with his leadership and he convinced me.
“He did a very good job in that sense, into convincing me and into sharing the vision that he has and the project that he has in mind with me. And yeah, I think we are relatively similar characters in terms that we are both very analytical, very fair and open.”
