Carlos Sainz Jnr, Williams, 2025

Williams team principal James Vowles appeared to have pulled off a coup when he beat the likes of Alpine and Sauber to Carlos Sainz Jnr’s signature last year.

But a little more than 12 months later, Sainz languishes eight places behind team mate Alexander Albon in the standings, having scored just 16 of the team’s 70 points. Vowles’ big-name signing has not delivered yet.

How far is that down to him? Sainz made it clear from the off he needed time to suss the Williams’s handling and figure out how to make it dance the way he wanted to over a single flying lap. Yet seven races in he turned the tables on Albon in the qualifying battle, edging ahead 4-3.

Albon hit back, however, as Sainz appeared to be wrong-footed by set-up changes the team made around the Imola weekend, which coincided with Pirelli’s introduction of the softer C6 tyre compound. There he produced a stunning lap in Q2 but couldn’t repeat it in the top 10 shoot-out. Albon qualified ahead for the next four races in a row.

Carlos Sainz Jnr

BestWorst
GP start6 (x3)19
GP finish8 (x2)18
Points16

Although crasing out on his first racing lap for his new team must have been a mortifying experience, Sainz has shown the benefit of his experience since then. In Jeddah he deftly kept Albon within DRS range to protect both drivers from Isack Hadjar behind them.

Sainz has been ill-served by fortune, however. He was in the process of overtaking Yuki Tsunoda in Bahrain when the Red Bull driver hit him, causing damage which ruined his race.

After qualifying a superb sixth in Miami, Sainz was hit by his own team mate at the start, compromising his race. Hadjar ruined his qualifying lap in Canada and he was forced off by Charles Leclerc at Silverstone and Pierre Gasly at the Hungaroring.

However it takes more than misfortune to account for the points gap between Sainz and his team mate. While there may have been times he deserved more points for his race performance, he has also often left himself with too much to do on race day.

Aside from an excellent drive in the sprint race at Spa, Sainz has only taken a single point from the last six rounds. That is partly a reflection of Williams’ growing challenges in the midfield. But they also need their star signing to start delivering.

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