The step that awaits Carlos Sainz in 2025 will not be easy. The Spaniard will move from a car that capable of fighting for victories to a team battling to score points. Still, Williams place their trust in the Spaniard’s skills – especially looking ahead to the revolutionary 2026 regulations
Carlos Sainz and his story as a Ferrari driver: his help also contributed to Leclerc’s growth
Carlos Sainz’s final haul in Ferrari is 4 victories, concluded with a podium in Abu Dhabi that allowed him to celebrate his farewell in the best possible way.
The Spaniard was chosen by Mattia Binotto, then Team Principal of the Maranello team, to replace Sebastian Vettel. Among his strengths was an ability to help teams grow, giving careful and precise feedback to the engineers and being an excellent team player, alongside great mental strength.
All this was confirmed in his 4 years in Ferrari. During this years, Sainz managed to hold his own against one of the best talents in F1 – Charles Leclerc .
There has always been a great relationship between the two off the track. They have pushed in the same direction to put Ferrari on the verge of last year’s constructors title.
On the track, there has always been competition between two drivers who respect each other, but who clearly want to get the best of their teammate, like any other F1 drivers. The internal fight has always been honest and never ignited by political maneuvers that could contaminate the team .
This rivalry has also helped Charles Leclerc a lot, who has also grown in recent years. The Monegasque now prepares to face an even tougher challenge with the 7-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton.
Leclerc must take another step forward, especially if the Scuderia fight for the title. Carlos Sainz in these four years, has always shown his passion for Ferrari and, despite a sometimes love-hate relationship with the fans (clearly more fond of Charles Leclerc) he has always earned the love and esteem of the Tifosi.
Carlos Sainz: a ‘technical’ driver who will be a great help to Williams in climbing the standings
Among the most important qualities of the Spanish driver is his very precise analysis at a technical level. This is an important quality that Ferrari has discovered little by little – reflecting some of Sebastian Vettel’s attitude – who was famous for the notebook he carried around and wrote all his notes on.
In Williams, the first laps in the FW46 in Abu Dhabi were enough to begin to understand ‘who’ and ‘what’ they gained in Grove. Some engineers of the Grove team, speaking with AutoRacer.it, have admitted that the arrival of Sainz is “a blessing” for them and will help follow a precise development path for 2025.
Above all, Sainz will play a crucial role for the 2026 regulations.
Last year, Williams had set a very intelligent strategy to optimize 2025 and then focus everything on 2026. However, unexpected circumstances changed things.
James Vowles had taken the risky choice of not producing a third spare chassis to save part of the budget. However, the various accidents by Logan Sargeant, Franco Colapinto later and Alexander Albon have severely affected Williams ‘ budget.
The English team has also had to use part of next year’s budget cap to produce components for the end of the season. Looking ahead to this year, Vowles and the entire team’s trust is placed in a talented and solid driver pairing.
Williams have an extremely strong duo for a midfield team – which could form the foundation of their 2026 project.
Carlos Sainz has started working with his new race engineer, Jedo Gaetan, who assisted Franco Colapinto last season. In his working group there will also be an Italian engineer who will work closely with him.
Next year’s Williams will be a rather different car to the one that raced up to Abu Dhabi. The first thought of the engineers at Grove is to add more downforce, which is clearly the weak point of the car.
The feedback from Sainz’s first laps for Williams in the Abu Dhabi post-season test was positive. He found exactly what he thought he would find, no positive or negative surprises.
A preview of the 2025 Williams is that we will certainly see a very different front wing to the one used last year. In addition to looking for more downforce, this wing will manage air flows in a very different way.
The aim will be to improve the driveability of the car and create better tire management in the race, especially on the harder tyres.
