When Carlos Sainz’s departure from Ferrari was confirmed, most of the F1 community expected that he would secure a seat at a top team. Instead, the Madrid-born driver is set to join Williams, currently second last in the championship standings. Mika Hakkinen has since predicted that Sainz will face a challenging time with the Grove-based outfit.
“Carlos’ decision to go to Williams, it’s a big drop in terms of what he was used to at Ferrari,” Hakkinen said on the Unibet International YouTube channel.
Per Hakkinen, money played a big factor in Sainz’s choosing to join Williams. “I am confident that Williams has good finances.”
Carlos’ decision to go to Williams, it’s a big drop in terms of what he was used to at Ferrari. I feel that he will have a very challenging time in the future. Very difficult time.
Watch my full thoughts on this topic from YouTube: https://t.co/fz1TIgLMIx pic.twitter.com/czGkpbYKnz
— Mika Häkkinen (@F1MikaHakkinen) September 10, 2024
Since Dorilton Capital took over Williams in 2020, the team has been on a path to resurgence. James Vowles became Team Principal in 2023, and the team’s on-track performances have shown improvement. However, Hakkinen believes that Williams still lacks what it takes to build a championship-level team.
“Making the great name Williams back on the top of the chart requires enormous investments and requires very talented people to design and build this car. So I’m feeling that Carlos will have a very challenging time in the future,” he added.
Vowles has brought in highly rated-engineers from other teams, including Matt Harman. However, it won’t just be about acquiring big names. The challenge will be to make them work in harmony, especially with the 2026 regulation changes looming.
Recent events, such as academy driver Zak O’Sullivan missing out on an F1 seat, suggest that not everything may be running smoothly at Williams from a financial point of view, as Hakkinen claimed.
What happened with O’Sullivan?
O’Sullivan won’t take part in the remaining two rounds of the F2 championship. He will be replaced by F3 driver Luke Browning. Reportedly, this was because of financial troubles at Williams.
O’Sullivan took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, “Unfortunately, in our sport, there are more factors at play than just the stopwatch. The simple issue comes down to funding, I won’t be able to complete this F2 season with ART GP.”
Firstly, I want to thank ART GP and Williams Racing for all of the support they have given me. This year we have had some incredible moments, multiple wins, and a big highlight of winning the feature race in Monaco.
Unfortunately in our sport, there are more factors at play than…
— Zak O’Sullivan (@ZakOSullivan) September 9, 2024
Williams has made significant investments in upgrading their factory’s infrastructure. Plus, with the sacking of Logan Sargeant, the team also lost his multimillion-dollar personal sponsors. This likely led to a shortage of funds.
