Sainz: Podium in Baku with Williams, better than the first in F1!

Carlos Sainz: An Unforgettable Podium with Williams

Williams driver Carlos Sainz expressed that his third-place finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was even more satisfying than the first podium of his career. At 31 years old, Sainz has achieved 28 podium finishes in 11 seasons in Formula 1, including four victories as a Ferrari driver. His first podium came at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, when he was driving for McLaren. Sainz joined Williams at the beginning of this season, after being replaced at Ferrari by Lewis Hamilton, and commented that his first podium with his new team was full of emotion.

“Honestly, I can’t describe how happy I am, how good this feels. It’s even better than my first podium”.

Carlos Sainz

Sainz also highlighted the team’s hard work and the demonstration of their speed on the track.

“We have been fighting hard all year and finally today we showed that when we have the speed, we’ve had it all year, and everything comes together, we can do incredible things together. Today we had a perfect race. Not a single mistake, and we managed to beat many cars that I didn’t expect to beat yesterday.”

Carlos Sainz

Sainz started from second position on the grid, taking advantage of a chaotic qualifying session at the Baku street circuit on Saturday. He maintained a high level of performance throughout the 53 laps of the race, losing only one position to George Russell’s Mercedes, who proved to be faster with an alternative strategy.

Carlos Sainz celebrates his first podium with Williams. The Spanish driver has four victories, 28 podiums and six poles in his career.Sainz expressed his pride in the Williams team and the progress made. He acknowledged that, despite bad luck and incidents, the podium in Baku was a reward for perseverance.

“I am extremely proud of everyone at Williams for overcoming a very difficult year. I think we have shown everyone the big step we took compared to last year. We are on the rise; we are going in the right direction. Unfortunately, with me, we have had a lot of bad luck, many incidents, very difficult to convert all that pace into results. But now I understand why it all happened, because the first podium had to come like that. It’s life, you know? Sometimes it brings you those bad moments to give you a very good one, and this is much better than anything else I was expecting. So, a life lesson, keep believing, keep trusting yourself, your team, your procedures, in everything you are doing, because sooner or later, it always pays off.”

Carlos Sainz

After Williams focused its efforts in 2026 at the beginning of the season, Sainz hopes the podium in Baku will be the highlight of his debut year with the team. “I think the podium is, unless something crazy happens, maybe our best opportunity,” he said. “Probably Las Vegas will be our next best track to try and maybe achieve a top five or a top six, which is what we can sometimes achieve when everything goes well. Sorry, it’s a difficult task.”