Carlos Sainz Savors the Podium in Azerbaijan: A Sweet Detour and Redemption at Williams
Not even a detour on the return flight could erase Carlos Sainz’s smile. After his first podium with Williams, the Spanish driver shared his joy with Charles Leclerc, his former teammate at Ferrari, on Instagram stories, while both were heading to Monaco in a rental van. “We were diverted by a storm and couldn’t land in Nice,” Sainz explained to Leclerc’s camera, while negotiating the entrance to a tunnel. “So we landed in Italy, rented a van and now we’re going to Monaco.” Sainz’s third place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is the most recent in a series of positive results in Formula 1 this year. This podium not only represents a milestone in his career, but also serves to vindicate his talent, especially after his results did not correspond to his history as a winner of four grand prizes. Sainz acknowledged that he had had bad luck and incidents that prevented him from converting his pace into results, but that this podium has shown him why. “Sometimes life gives you those bad moments to give you a very good one, and this is much better than anything else I expected,” he commented.
Despite the 15 points obtained in Baku, Sainz has still scored less than half the points of his teammate, Alex Albon, this season.
Consistency and avoiding problems have always been characteristics of Sainz in F1, which makes the missed opportunities of 2025 even more perplexing and frustrating. One explanation is that Sainz has had difficulties adapting to a new car after four years at Ferrari, but this ignores the potential he has shown in this year’s qualifying sessions. The difference between Sainz and Albon on one lap has been one of the smallest between two teammates this year, and even closer than that of title rivals, Norris and Piastri. “I’ve been quite fast all year with the car,” Sainz said on Sunday. “I think of all those who have changed teams, which is not an easy task these days, I’ve been very competitive from the first race, very fast, but I didn’t have results. I didn’t have results to prove to myself, to the team and to everyone that something good was coming. But, in the end, they did.” Sainz’s podium in Baku extends beyond this year’s messy races. In early 2024, Ferrari informed him that his contract would not be renewed beyond the end of the season, as the Italian team secured the services of Lewis Hamilton. At that moment, Sainz decided to bet on the Williams project, convinced by James Vowles’ plan. The decision required a great deal of faith on Sainz’s part, as Williams has not finished in the top half of the constructors’ championship in the last seven seasons. Vowles, in his proposal to sign Sainz last year, pointed to the 2025 season as another difficult campaign in which the team would move away from car development to focus on the regulation changes coming in 2026. The notable result in Azerbaijan, born from genuine pace in difficult conditions, was even sweeter.“I always told the team from the beginning that, when the first big opportunity to fight for a podium arrives, as long as we have everything under control and nothing goes wrong and we show everyone what we are doing, and we get that podium, then I’ll be fine. And that’s exactly what happened today.” “We had our chance starting from P2,” Sainz continued. “Probably, if we were asked many of us yesterday, we didn’t believe the podium was really achievable with so many fast cars behind us on the grid. But I think we’ve had good pace this year, we just didn’t have many opportunities to show it. Today we had a very good opportunity to demonstrate our very good pace, and we managed to get on the podium.”“This means even more simply because, obviously, a year ago when I bet on Williams, I said that I am going to this team because I really believe in this project, and I really believe that this team is on the rise”, said Sainz. “I am very comfortable in this work environment, also very comfortable with everyone around me”.
Carlos Sainz
This achievement by Sainz comes before Hamilton’s first podium for Ferrari, something that demonstrates the magnitude of Sainz’s success after his bold decision to join Williams.
“What others do is none of my business, to be honest,” Sainz replied. “What matters to me is that in the first opportunity I had to get a podium with Williams, and in the first opportunity Williams had to get a podium, we took advantage of it, we got it, and there it is.” Sainz seems to be looking to the future. “For me, the vindication of the result is not so much about going to Williams, because I always believed in this project,” he said. “I have said it many times and I will say it again, this is the project of my life and if I get Williams back to being competitive and winning races, this is all that matters to me.” “I am going to dedicate the next few years of my life, all my effort, to that and to commit to that.” In a season where his results haven’t matched his underlying performance, Sainz’s podium in Baku has served to put things in their place. The wait for the next podium could be even longer, but the belief that it will happen has undoubtedly doubled since Sunday.
