Carlos Sainz’s move from Ferrari to Williams for the 2025 season probably means that his days of vying for podiums and race wins are behind him, at least for the foreseeable future. But his pace during pre-season testing might have upped the expectations for some of his fans.
The #55 driver was almost a second up on the Grove-based team’s official Qualifying time at the 2024 Bahrain GP as he clocked in the fastest lap time of the 2025 pre-season test at the Sakhir International Circuit.
Yet, while speaking to his fans via MARCA, the Madrid-born driver warned his fans not to get their hopes up.
“They won’t see me on the podium or the top five this year, so don’t get your hopes up,” he said per ESPN.
Carlos Sainz has a message for his fans on what they can expect to see from him this year ️ pic.twitter.com/dpEWJNOrka
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) March 1, 2025
That said, this does not mean that Sainz is giving up on the Williams project in any way. Instead, he wants the team to set a strong foundation that can help them achieve sustainable success in the future.
“I haven’t come to Williams to just hang around or let the years go by, to be in the middle of the grid. I have come to Williams to push this team ahead and I am confident I can do that,” he added.
Despite Williams’ strong pace during pre-season testing, 2025 is going to be a transitional year for them. Sainz too had factored this in last year when he took every opportunity available to him with Ferrari to score wins and podiums, finishing the season with two victories and seven top-three finishes.
James Vowles concurs with Sainz as he sets expectations for 2025
Sainz’s dismissal of a huge turnaround in the competitiveness of the FW47 compared to last year’s car is in line with team principal James Vowles’ admission about their expectations this season. The former Mercedes man has already made it clear that the aim for the team is to focus on the 2026 regulations reset.
This means that Williams will have to sacrifice 2025 to improve their chances of becoming competitive in 2026.
“I’ve been very clear from the beginning that 2026 is the large year I want to make sure we put focus onto. And that will have an effect on 2025, a sacrifice in some elements. There will be teams upgrading,” Vowles said as quoted by Last Word on Sports.
With Sainz and Alex Albon signed onto the 2026 project, it will be interesting to see how the duo drive the development of the FW48. In fact, early indications come as a welcome surprise for Williams as the duo explained they are in sync with respect to how they like the car to be set up and developed.
“I think we’re similar. I think we like the car in a similar way, for the most part,” revealed Albon when discussing his link-up with the #55 driver with F1 TV presenter Lawrence Barretto.
