Carlos Sainz maintains his firm conviction that he can achieve the Formula 1 world championship with Williams.
The Spanish driver joined the British team at the beginning of this season, after finding himself in the unfortunate situation of losing his seat at Ferrari, when the team chose to sign seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.
His debut season with the Grove-based team hasn’t been as smooth as Sainz would have liked, with a combination of inconsistency, bad luck, and strategic errors that have earned him only 16 points in the first 15 races.
However, the 31-year-old driver has seen enough to remain confident that he joined the right team.
Sainz Trusts Williams Project
Yes. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Ferrari and my other experiences, it’s that I know that with the right people around me I can develop a competitive car and team.
When asked if he believes he can become champion with Williams, Sainz told the PA news agency before last weekend’s race in Zandvoort.
Sainz added: “I get a lot of confidence from that, from knowing that I know how to guide a large organization to go in the right direction, what the car needs to perform, what is the correct structure for a team, and I am looking forward to helping Williams with that. I see everything at the base, in the factory, responding and everything is going as I want. It’s a question of whether we can achieve it or not, obviously, but I think it’s still the right place for me in the future.”The Dutch Grand Prix was a reflection of Sainz’s season. Although he qualified in a solid ninth position, a mid-race collision with Liam Lawson, for which the Spaniard received a penalty that infuriated him, relegated him to 13th place.
His teammate, Alex Albon, achieved an impressive fifth place, adding 64 points to his season total.
Sainz added: “For my part, if I use Alex as a reference, I feel that the speed has been there from the beginning. We have been very evenly matched in terms of pure speed, which is normally what costs you the most when you change teams. So I am relatively happy and proud of that adaptation process. But, unfortunately, we did not manage to score points, or as many points as we should, due to the speed I have in the car”.
Williams team principal James Vowles has made it clear that he is building a long-term project, focused on the new regulations that will come into effect next year, but admitting that it could take until 2028 for many elements to materialize.
This means that Sainz’s debut season has largely been a year of learning, and the four-time race winner is not expected to appear on the podium.
Sainz admits that he has had to change his mentality, and adds: “That’s what I miss the most. The pressure and excitement of facing a weekend knowing that you are fighting for a podium or a victory. That’s the only thing I miss from the past.”
“That pressure, that adrenaline, that feeling you get in your body when you know you’re going into a weekend where you could have the opportunity to win or get on the podium. But, apart from that, honestly, the competitive side of me ignites every weekend, so it doesn’t need any other adjustment. I feel that the more we work this year and the better we work this year, the sooner that feeling of winning and some podiums will return.”
