Sainz responds to critics: 'If you say that, you understand little about F1'

Carlos Sainz was signed as one of the most in-demand free agents by Williams the previous season. While team principal James Vowles often tells he has the strongest line-up, the Spaniard is behind Alexander Albon. However, he is not worried.

Carlos Sainz has scored a single point in the 2025 season with Williams, in China, after the two Ferrari drivers and Pierre Gasly were disqualified.

After the opening rounds, Sainz responded to the critics. "Well, if you expect to see the best of Carlos Sainz in a Williams in the third race and in a new car, then yes, you don't understand the sport very well, or you know at least how long it might take for a driver to actually get fully up to speed with the car and to fully understand where the last tenth and a half or last two tenths of each car lies," he began.

While he is regularly behind his teammate and is usually outside of the Top 10, the Spanish driver is not dissatisfied with how the season began, as he is adapting to the new environment.

"I think it's a good start to the season. I just need to make sure now we start doing less mistakes when it comes to executing the weekend and keep improving my speed because obviously I believe the speed still—we can improve it a little bit. But yeah, we are not as far as it seems. I feel like we just need to put a full weekend together and it will come."

Sainz sees bright future ahead for Williams

After completing his first few months at this new team, Sainz believes he has made the right choice to join the Groves-based team, after he had to leave Ferrari.

He also sees that the more established driver at the team, Albon, has showed the potential of their team. "I think Alex has been able to extract the maximum out of the car these last three races, and all the progress that we've made during the winter since we changed the car, since I arrived, all the setup directions that we've been taking—it's also leading into those positive results," he explained.

He continued: "There's a lot more to come in this team. I can tell you already, it's amazing the amount of work that is being done back in the factory. The level of performance that we've managed to add to the car since last year to this year, I think it's just in a very positive trend and in a very good direction. It's something that extremely motivates me to try and help and try 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 in points, but points will come during the season. But I'm very motivated, I'm very impressed with all the steps that the team is doing."

This article was written in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen