Tag: Carlos Sainz

Beating Audi and Alpine to Sainz deal ‘monumental’ for Williams, Vowles says

James Vowles says Carlos Sainz choosing to join Williams over Audi and Alpine is a “monumental” outcome for his team. Sainz’s future was the center of speculation throughout 2024 prior to the summer break, with the Spaniard set to be replaced by …

James Vowles says Carlos Sainz choosing to join Williams over Audi and Alpine is a “monumental” outcome for his team.

Sainz’s future was the center of speculation throughout 2024 prior to the summer break, with the Spaniard set to be replaced by Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari and not receiving firm offers from Mercedes or Red Bull. While he was heavily linked with the Audi project early on, and had serious interest from Alpine, in the end it was Williams that secured his signature on a multi-year contract.

“I think it’s a huge, huge event for Williams to have two of the best drivers of the world fighting at the front,” team principal Vowles said. “I think it’s very much a sign of things to come the fact that we are prepared to have the investment required to be there. And a lot of it you can’t see; the one you can materially see is what we’re doing by effectively putting money where it should be into the best drivers that are available to us. In terms of beating an OEM, and one of the largest in the world, I am incredibly proud. I said this to Carlos anyway — it’s one of the proudest moments of my career and I’ve had lots of great moments in my career. The fact that he chose us above all else is a huge, huge, monumental decision.”

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Vowles says it’s not just the relative struggles of the other teams that played a role in Sainz’s decision, but the longer-term picture of what Williams is building and where it is likely to be in the future.

“We have to be straightforward — Alpine are ahead of us on points this year, they were ahead of us on points last year as well. I recognize all of that,” Vowles said. “What he’s buying into is what can we provide over the next two years and what’s the direction of travel?

“Look at us this year — we’re back in ninth. Is that where we should be? Not if the car was on the weight limit, but that’s on our shoulders. No one else caused that but ourselves as we changed technologies.

“However, the bit that I am excited by is we are pretty consistently 10th from ’21, ’22, and in ’23, do I think we should have been seventh? I think we got fortunate because AlphaTauri were very quick towards the end and it was a matter of a strategic decision that really decided whether we were eighth or seventh, and we had huge tumbles of points but at very few events.

“What I want to produce is a car that is good everywhere with the right foundations behind it, and as I’ve said that will cost us in the short term but pay back in the long term — that’s the direction of travel we’re in.

“It’s monumental to beat these two organizations, because they are both incredible organizations in their own right. We can’t underestimate them. The moment we do is the moment you lose to them in the championship. But what Carlos recognized from us — and much of it you won’t see, and will never see, I’m afraid, but I did expose it to him — is what we’re changing on the inside, and that’s what’s exciting.”

Norris feels Sainz deserved Red Bull seat

Lando Norris believes Red Bull should have opted to sign Carlos Sainz for 2025, following the Spaniard’s move to Williams. Sainz was a known free agent after Ferrari secured the signature of Lewis Hamilton at the start of this year, with the …

Lando Norris believes Red Bull should have opted to sign Carlos Sainz for 2025, following the Spaniard’s move to Williams.

Sainz was a known free agent after Ferrari secured the signature of Lewis Hamilton at the start of this year, with the seven-time world champion heading to Maranello next season. Until early June, Red Bull had not confirmed Sergio Perez’s future at the team, while Mercedes still has a vacancy for next year, but Norris believes Sainz should have been paired with Max Verstappen again having been a Red Bull junior driver in the past.

“I don’t know what their plans are,” Norris told Sky Sports. “Honestly, the easy one is just to say Red Bull, he should have gone there in my eyes. Obviously, I’m biased, I know Carlos more than I know Checo and that kind of thing, but Carlos deserves a lot. He’s one of the best drivers in Formula 1 — he’s proven that countless times — and I’m a good friend of his.

“So I’m happy for him that he’s still in Formula 1; I’m still happy that he got to drive and that he can try and bring Williams back up. And him partnering Alex [Albon], I think will be good for Formula 1 at the same time. So that’s a good thing, but I’m sure a lot of people would have loved to say that he should have gone to Red Bull potentially, but that’s not my decision to make.”

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Williams team principal James Vowles also admitted earlier this week that he was surprised Sainz wasn’t signed by one of Red Bull or Mercedes, but says he sees the fit of the entire Sainz camp — including his manager Carlos “Caco” Onoro Sainz and his rally legend father, Carlos Sainz Sr. — as perfect for Williams.

“You’re going to go for an individual who will make the difference — and I’m not just focused on how quick he is in the car, I’m focused on how he is as a personality,” Vowles said. “By the way, this also includes how his entourage is — that includes Caco, his manager, and Carlos, his father. His father is as performance-driven as junior. He’s an incredible character.

“The three of them together come as a package. And that’s what we need here at Williams. I think the fit is absolutely perfect. They’re the exact words I told them from the very beginning to the very end of this journey.”

Williams signs Sainz on multi-year deal

Carlos Sainz has finally made a decision on his future and signed for Williams on a multi-year contract, replacing Logan Sargeant in 2025. Ferrari’s decision to sign Lewis Hamilton for next year had left Sainz on the driver market from the start of …

Carlos Sainz has finally made a decision on his future and signed for Williams on a multi-year contract, replacing Logan Sargeant in 2025.

Ferrari’s decision to sign Lewis Hamilton for next year had left Sainz on the driver market from the start of this season, and the Spaniard took his time to assess options and wait to see if any openings appeared that could lead to opportunities at either Red Bull or Mercedes. While acceptable offers there didn’t materialize, Sainz still had a choice of Williams, Alpine or Stake – the future Audi F1 entry – and has now committed to join James Vowles’ rebuilding project.

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“I am very happy to announce that I will be joining Williams Racing from 2025 onwards,” Sainz said. “It is no secret that this year’s driver market has been exceptionally complex for various reasons and that it has taken me some time to announce my decision.

“However, I am fully confident that Williams is the right place for me to continue my F1 journey and I am extremely proud of joining such a historic and successful team, where many of my childhood heroes drove in the past and made their mark on our sport.

“The ultimate goal of bringing Williams back to where it belongs, at the front of the grid, is a challenge that I embrace with excitement and positivity. I am convinced that this team has all the right ingredients to make history again and starting on January 1 I will give my absolute best to drive Williams forward alongside every single member of the team.”

Sainz, who has won three grands prix to date, singled out Vowles and the management team at Williams as key factors in his decision, as Dorilton Capital continues to invest in the infrastructure at Grove to try and return Williams to winning ways.

“I want to thank James Vowles and the entire board of Williams for their trust and determination. Their solid leadership and convictions have played an important role in my decision-making.

“I truly believe that the core of every successful team lies amongst their people and their culture. Williams is synonymous with heritage and pure racing, the foundations of the project that lies ahead of us are very strong and I am really looking forward to being part of it starting next year.”

Sainz beats the heat and Verstappen in first Hungarian GP practice

Carlos Sainz topped a sizzling hot first practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen. The mercury read 87 degrees F, with the track temperature soaring to 136, at the beginning of the hour-long session, setting the tone for a …

Carlos Sainz topped a sizzling hot first practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen.

The mercury read 87 degrees F, with the track temperature soaring to 136, at the beginning of the hour-long session, setting the tone for a scorching weekend to come as Budapest sweats through the final days of a heat wave. But Sainz and Ferrari were untroubled by the heat, the Spaniard setting the fastest lap of the session on a new set of soft tires with a time of 1m18.713s.

It was a strong showing for Maranello, validating the revisions made to the problematic Barcelona-spec floor that put it well off the pace during the preceding tripleheader of races.

Verstappen followed him 0.276s adrift in his heavily upgraded Red Bull Racing car. The brittle soft tire struggled to back up for more than one flying lap, but the Dutchman came close to squeezing out a time to at least match his best. His best first sector came on a set of used softs, though by the middle sector his aged rubber had begun ailing under the strain.

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Charles Leclerc completed the top three in the second Ferrari, lapping 0.298s behind his teammate, his updated car pairing well with a circuit that should suit the SF-24’s strengths.

Mercedes’ 2022 Budapest pole-getter George Russell was fourth quickest but 0.424s adrift, just pipping the out-of-position Zhou Guanyu in his Sauber by 0.043s. Zhou’s performance came despite his Sauber car shedding bodywork early in the session, with television cameras picking out several missing cooling louver in a vent on his sidepod.

McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were closely matched in sixth and seventh respectively, half a second off the pace and ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in the quickest RB.

Lance Stroll was bafflingly the fastest Aston Martin in ninth despite the Canadian lacking the extensive upgrades carried by teammate Fernando Alonso as part of the team’s testing program. “The car is quite shocking to drive right now,” Stroll said early in the session, though he still ended up 0.421s quicker than Alonso in 13th.

Lewis Hamilton completed the top 10 ahead of the under-pressure Sergio Perez, who was 0.727s off the pace and 0.451s slower than teammate Verstappen.

Daniel Ricciardo was 12th in the second RB ahead of Alonso, Alex Albon — whose Williams shed a floor edge early in the session, requiring a virtual safety car for clean-up — Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant and Alpine teammates Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

Haas propped up the bottom of the time sheet, with Kevin Magnussen 1.582s off the pace and ahead of Oliver Bearman in his fourth stand-in appearance of the season. Commandeering Nico Hulkenberg’s car, he was 0.076s adrift of the sister car.

Sainz content to be ‘selfish’ in setting agenda to decide his future

Carlos Sainz says he has learned to be “more on the selfish side” when it comes to making a decision over his future, and that he’s still not in a position to select his next move. Ferrari’s decision to replace Sainz with Lewis Hamilton in 2025 has …

Carlos Sainz says he has learned to be “more on the selfish side” when it comes to making a decision over his future, and that he’s still not in a position to select his next move.

Ferrari’s decision to replace Sainz with Lewis Hamilton in 2025 has left the Spaniard as the top driver available on the market, but with only Mercedes currently with a certain vacancy of race-winning teams. The Mercedes seat was originally one Sainz wasn’t strongly in the running for but that situation appears to have changed in recent weeks, further extending the wait as he also weighs up interest from Alpine, Williams and Stake.

“Yeah, I am conscious of [other drivers waiting], but at the same time I don’t think it’s going to change because it’s only the timing that I’m changing,” Sainz said. “I’m probably not changing the outcome of anyone as probably all teams by now have their priorities and their decision-making depending on each scenario.

“At the same time, this sport and this world has taught me to be a bit more on the selfish side and look out for myself, and take the decision that I need to take whenever I need to take it and whenever I have all of the options on the table and I’m ready to take the decision, and not rush things if I don’t need to.

“The teams have been very patient and I thank them for that. But I’ve also had to be patient — it’s not like I’m the only one here deciding. At the same time I thank everyone that is having to hang in there while I take the decision.

“What I don’t fully understand is why the market is happening so early this year? Why everyone is so much in a rush, when I remember it used to be in the summer break, September, July, when all of those situations started to happen.”

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Sainz admits he didn’t come to a decision in the recent gap between races and is now turning his focus back to the on-track situation he currently faces, one he hopes will improve at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix as Ferrari looks to overcome a slump in form linked to its recent floor upgrade.

“I see Silverstone as an investment,” he said. “We invested probably not optimizing the Silverstone weekend, because you spend FP1 and FP2 comparing floors and not having your teammate as a reference to optimize the car and the car performance, to potentially making yourselves faster in five or six races’ time when we can learn what we can apply from Silverstone into the wind tunnel and apply it for the future.

“Already for Hungary we have a small upgrade that hopefully makes things better, but Silverstone was an investment and hopefully improving the car a bit more in the medium and longer term.”

Leclerc perplexed by SQ3 issue that prevented attempt

Charles Leclerc says he doesn’t know what caused his car to shut down in the pit lane and prevented him from setting a lap time in SQ3 at the Austrian Grand Prix. The final part of sprint qualifying saw all 10 drivers waiting until the final few …

Charles Leclerc says he doesn’t know what caused his car to shut down in the pit lane and prevented him from setting a lap time in SQ3 at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The final part of sprint qualifying saw all 10 drivers waiting until the final few minutes to start the one attempt, both to save a set of tires but also due to the lack of time to go out and complete two runs in most of the shortened sessions. Leclerc had left the Ferrari garage but then came to a halt in the pit lane before moving once again, but he just ran out of time to start a timed lap before the checkered flag came out.

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“I don’t know what happened,” Leclerc said. “I was in the pit lane and I got the anti-stall and then everything switched off.

“We weren’t super strong, but definitely better than P10 [was possible] so it’s a bit disappointing. But we’ll look at what happened and tomorrow we’ll try to have a good sprint race to come back to the front.”

Teammate Carlos Sainz secured fifth place on the grid for Saturday’s sprint, but says there is work to do ahead of the main qualifying session too.

“I had a decent sprint qualifying, I think I was on it since Q1, Q2 and Q3,” Sainz said. “Three very clean laps in qualifying. Unfortunately, already in FP1 on softs we look a bit weaker than on the harder compounds, and then when we put that soft on at the end, from maybe thinking top three was possible, we are P5.

“But we had the same in FP1 where we were P6 or something like that on softs, so something to look into. Unfortunately, right now this is more or less where we are.

“I’m hoping that we can move forward a little. Starting P5, clean side of the grid, we’re going to go for it and try to get as maximum points as possible tomorrow. And then we have another qualifying where we still need to do some fine-tuning on the car.”

Sainz trying to focus on the long term in assessing team options

Carlos Sainz says it’s difficult to ignore current results but that he’s trying to focus more on long-term projects as he continues to weigh up his next move. Williams and Stake – that will become Audi – are believed to remain the front-runners for …

Carlos Sainz says it’s difficult to ignore current results but that he’s trying to focus more on long-term projects as he continues to weigh up his next move.

Williams and Stake — that will become Audi — are believed to remain the front-runners for Sainz’s signature, but the Spaniard has also been linked more firmly with Alpine after the French constructor started exploring the possibility of becoming a customer team in 2026. Alpine had been struggling this season but scored its second double-points finish in a row in Spain while both Williams and Stake both had tough weekends, but Sainz says he’s trying not to be influenced by week-to-week results.

“It’s not easy,” Sainz said. “I am doing the exercise myself, and my team, to really try to avoid looking at each race performance of each team and just focus on the project and the feeling that we get from the people that we talk to, and the feeling that I get from talking to each team, and obviously looking at the contracts.

“Sometimes with the competitive spirit you just try and see who is faster, but I don’t think the last race of each team is also a representative point of where they’re going to be in the next couple of years. So I’m trying to stay away from going into the race-by-race stuff.”

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With the 29-year-old still assessing the options he has on the table — after Alpine and Aston Martin announced contract extensions for Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll respectively — he says the whole process has taught him a number of things about the Formula 1 paddock, as well as the ambitions of each team showing an interest.

“First of all, the situation that I’ve been in this year has made me learn a lot about Formula 1, in general, by talking to teams,” he said. “It has kind of showed me how tough this sport is, how little sometimes you have to believe what people say at the beginning of negotiations, conversations, and mainly also to trust very little people in the paddock, because it’s really a very political sport.

“There’s a lot of things like this involved, and it’s made me understand that, yeah, it’s a very tough sport in that sense, and understand the better picture of Formula 1, without going too much into detail.

“The teams that I’m potentially moving to next year, I’ve obviously dug into the state that they are [in]. It’s also [given] me probably a better understanding of Formula 1 and where each team is.”

Sainz tops final Spanish GP practice

Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix is too close to call after Carlos Sainz headed a gaggle of five drivers and four teams split by just 0.151s in Barcelona. But the session was colored by two moments of road rage that will see Charles Leclerc and …

Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix is too close to call after Carlos Sainz headed a gaggle of five drivers and four teams split by just 0.151s in Barcelona.

But the session was colored by two moments of road rage that will see Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll face grid penalties for collisions with Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton respectively.

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Sainz set the benchmark at 1m 13.013s in the final eight minutes of the session, pipping McLaren’s Lando Norris by just 0.03s.

Norris, however, could almost certainly have gone faster. The Briton set his fastest lap earlier in the session and on a set of soft tires that had already been used for aborted flying lap.

He also dipped a wheel into the stones exiting Turn 12, further compromising a lap that otherwise likely would have seen him secure top spot.

Leclerc completed the top three just 0.007s behind Norris, the Monegasque radioing his team that the car felt like “it’s a good step forward” after a tricky Friday.

Max Verstappen slotted into fourth and 0.074s off the pace, while George Russell completed a five-driver, four-team top five at 0.151s off the pace.

The super tight session was marred by two incidents of bizarre road rage, with Leclerc and Norris as well as Stroll and Hamilton all set to see the stewards after the session.

Leclerc and Norris came together exiting Turn 5. The McLaren driver, on a slow-down lap, pulled to the left of the road to allow the Ferrari to sweep past, but Leclerc, apparently incensed, cut across to make what looked like deliberate contact.

Norris suspected his car was damaged in the incident. It was oddly reminiscent of an incident between Stroll and Hamilton earlier in the hour.

Hamilton had been caught unawares by the fast-approaching Stroll entering Turn 5 and, upon spotting the Aston Martin car, pulled to the very edge of the track on the right-hand side.

Stroll, having already slowed to avoid contact, appeared to open his steering to tag the left of the Mercedes before accelerating away.

Hamilton continued the session, finishing sixth and 0.346s off the pace, almost all of which came from a snap of oversteer in the final sector.

Sergio Perez was well off the pace of the leading sextet, lapping 0.71s slower than Sainz to finish the session seventh ahead of Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso.

Oscar Piastri was separated from the lead group after running wide exiting Turn 12 on his fastest lap. The error cost him around 0.6s to Sainz; he finished 0.894s off the pace.

Alpine teammates Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly slid out of the top 10 to finish 11th and 12th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen.

Daniel Ricciardo led the way for an RB team still looking for pace from its major upgrade, finishing 16th ahead of Stroll, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Logan Sargeant.

Sainz feeling pressure to settle his F1 future but sees no clear path yet

Carlos Sainz says he is still unsure where he is going to drive in 2025 but doesn’t want to wait any longer before making a decision on which team to join. Williams, Stake and Alpine are believed to be the three main options available to the Ferrari …

Carlos Sainz says he is still unsure where he is going to drive in 2025 but doesn’t want to wait any longer before making a decision on which team to join.

Williams, Stake and Alpine are believed to be the three main options available to the Ferrari driver, with Alpine seen as the clear outsider of the three as he weights up the future works team at Audi and the Mercedes-backed Williams project. The media focus on his future has ramped up even further this week ahead of his home Spanish Grand Prix, and Sainz admits he has reached the point where he wants to have the topic off his mind.

“The latest is that a decision will be taken very soon,” Sainz said. “I don’t want to wait any longer. I think it’s getting to a point where it’s obviously taking space out of my head for quite a few weeks and months and I think it’s obviously time to make a decision. So hopefully soon we will have things to talk about.”

However, Sainz insisted that his desire to finalize his future does not mean he has a clear decision in mind.

“No, that’s the thing. I’m still not sure one way or another,” he said. “It’s still something that I’m discussing with my team and brainstorming and obviously I need a couple of days back at home and before the Spanish Grand Prix.

“I’ve been at home, but you don’t have you head in the future, you have your head in the Spanish Grand Prix. It’s been a very hectic couple of weeks after Canada for me. So I haven’t had time to really sit down and take a decision. And this is what I will target in the next few weeks.”

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The Spaniard says the reason his decision is proving so difficult is based on the desire to have as competitive a car as possible next season, but also to join a team that offers a chance of being strong under future regulations too.

“I think 2026, guessing now in 2024 who is going to be performing better is almost impossible,” he admitted. “I think I used the term a bit of a lottery or a coin toss. To see who is going to be quicker in 2026, given that the regulation is so different, the cars are completely different, the chassis, the engine, it’s almost impossible to predict who is going to be performing in 2026.

“So then ’25 becomes also important. At that stage, if I cannot predict ‘26 and I don’t know who’s going to be performing better, then ‘25 is important for me to know. And it is also the long-term — trying to understand the power unit side, trying to understand the team dynamics. All these factors come into play when taking a decision. That’s why it’s taking time for me to find some time within myself to take the decision.”

Carlos Sainz provides a big update on his plans for 2025 Formula 1 season

Carlos Sainz provides a big update on his plans for the 2025 Formula 1 season. What did Sainz say about his future in Formula 1?

[autotag]Carlos Sainz[/autotag] is the biggest name still available in Formula 1 for the 2025 season, and there has been much debate about his future. Sainz has been linked to several teams, such as Red Bull, Mercedes, Williams, and Audi, but he hasn’t inked a contract yet. It has been a painfully long process, as Lewis Hamilton replaces him at Ferrari in 2025.

Ahead of the race weekend in Spain, Sainz provided a big update about his future in Formula 1. The Ferrari driver hopes to make a decision soon as he doesn’t want to wait any longer to find a new home.

“A decision will be made very soon, I don’t want to wait any longer as it is taking space out of my head so soon we will have things to talk about,” Sainz said. “I’m still not sure one way or another, I am discussing with my team and I just need a couple of days back home. I haven’t had time to sit down and take a decision and this is what I will target in the next few weeks.”

Sainz doesn’t have Red Bull as an option, as the team signed Sergio Perez to a contract extension. Meanwhile, Mercedes is out of the picture as it focuses on Kimi Antonelli to replace Hamilton at some point. Williams and Audi are the two most logical landing spots, and while they aren’t on the same level as Ferrari, they would give Sainz some long-term stability.

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