F1
Agent of Change: Carlos Sainz
In 6 months, Carlos Sainz has gone from being a race winner with Ferrari to some early struggles with Williams. But for the talented driver, it’s all part of one of F1’s toughest tasks—changing teams.
Last October, Carlos Sainz was standing atop the podium, reveling in the adulation and anarchy of the Foro Sol on the grounds of the Autodrómo Hermanos Rodríguez. With the end of his Ferrari career looming, the Spanish driver had converted pole position into a commanding victory in the Mexico City Grand Prix ahead of Lando
Norris and Charles Leclerc. It was, he said, “one of the best moments in my career.”
Fast forward to this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix, and a vastly different picture. Sainz, in the white and blue of Williams, is limping around the circuit with a gaping hole in the sidepod of his car following a collision with Yuki Tsunoda. Soon after, a tussle with Kimi Antonelli for 14th place leads to Sainz being handed a 10-second penalty for forcing the Mercedes off the road. And finally, on Lap 45, Sainz is called back to pit lane, the damage on his car too great to continue.
Following a Lap 1 crash behind the Safety Car in Australia, a single point for 10th in China and 14th in Japan, it appeared, on the outside at least, to be a worrying change of fortunes (especially when measured against the 18 points teammate Alex Albon had netted in the first four rounds). But while Sainz acknowledges the difficulties, he says it’s all part of the steep learning curve of switching to a new team in F1. And a stellar drive to finish 8th in Saudi Arabia is a hopeful sign.
“If you expect to see the best of Carlos Sainz [this early] in a new car, then you don’t understand the sport very well,” he insists. “The speed has been there in Australia and Suzuka. I think I was pretty quick, especially given that I’m still new to the car. To manage to be close or in the same tenth as Alex all the way through quali—I think it’s a good start to the season. I just need to make sure now we start making fewer mistakes and keep improving my speed.”
Sainz is not alone in his struggles. Over at Ferrari, in the seat the Spaniard was forced to abdicate, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton is also struggling to adapt. “Every driver has a driving style, and my driving style has worked for many, many years,” he told F1TV in Saudi Arabia. “Naturally, you adapt it a little bit over time, but this one needs a bit more of a drastic shift.”
For Sainz, the adaptation process is complicated by the sensitivity of the current generation of cars to track conditions. “Sometimes you jump into a Formula 1 car and you’re just naturally quick,” he explains. “I felt that was the case in the Abu Dhabi test last year and in Bahrain testing this year. I didn’t need to think while driving, and I felt like as soon as I jumped in the car, I was quick—actually quicker than I thought I would be. And then when we went into Australia, the balance changed a bit. In China, and even in Suzuka, I was having to really break my head to understand how to drive the car and extract performance from it. You first need to go through these weekends where you have a bit of a challenging time to understand it and reverse-engineer that.”
That, says Sainz, takes time. “Obviously everyone expected me to be straight on the pace,” he says. “I guess that’s a good thing; it means people expect high things of me. But after the Bahrain test, when I was P1, I was like, I’m nowhere near where I need to be with this car. So, I’m calm.”
Williams team principal James Vowles had no doubts on that score. “There are two ways to assess performance for a driver,” he says. “The first is what they’re doing in the car, and it will take him time. He’s getting there, and he’ll be on the money very shortly. In terms of what he’s doing out of the car—the car is faster thanks to the effort he’s put in, and how he develops with the engineers. That’s why Carlos was my number one target. He’s absolutely brilliant at developing teams.”
CARLOS IS PUSHING US. OUR GOAL, AT THE END OF THE DAY, IS TO BE A TOP TEAM HEADING INTO 2026.
Albon agrees, adding that Sainz’s arrival has reignited his appetite to push the team to a higher level. “His approach to perfection and wanting the team to improve is refreshing,” Albon says. “I’ve been on the team for over three years now, and there are moments where you kind of settle and accept things as time goes on, and focus on areas where you know there are weaknesses. In that sense, Carlos is pushing us. He’s brought me back to focusing on areas I shouldn’t settle. Our goal, at the end of the day, is to become a top team heading into 2026.”
In the meantime, Sainz must unlearn his Ferrari ways and learn how to drive a new car and power unit. “Ferrari had a certain car balance, a certain direction we followed after three or four years of development,” he says. “The car required you to brake in a certain manner, turn in a certain manner and after three years of muscle memory, you fall into a trap of doing everything that way. And when you jump into a different car, especially under pressure in quali, you try and find the last two tenths of the car and you fall into muscle memory. I need to remember that in a certain type of corner, to not do it. That’s why it’s almost impossible to ask anyone to be quick in the first few races with a car.”
The Mercedes PU, he says, is “probably the biggest change in changing teams that I’ve had to adapt to. Aerodynamics and suspension, everything feels different, but when they change the engine, that’s when you really feel some big differences. I’m trying to give the team—and Mercedes—good feedback from what I believe Ferrari was doing better, and at the same time, give feedback on what I think they are doing better than Ferrari.”
And once all of those challenges are fully addressed, Sainz is sure that the big changes Albon alludes to will reap rewards. “I’m very confident,” Sainz says without bravado. “Alex has been able to extract the maximum out of the car, and all the progress we’ve made during the winter, all the setup directions that we’ve been taking, are leading into those positive results. And there’s a lot more to come in this team. The level of performance that we’ve managed to add to the car from last year to this year, it’s in a very good direction— and something that motivates me to contribute as much as possible. I’m doing it in other ways right now rather than on points. I wish I could do it also on points, but they will come during the season.”
