Carlos Sainz sees “motivation” and “excitement” from his new Williams Formula 1 colleagues, keen to learn from his experiences at Ferrari.
Sainz joins Williams after four years at Ferrari, a squad considered among the best in F1, one that brought the Spaniard four Grand Prix wins and narrowly missed out on the Constructors’ title in 2024.
Williams, on the other hand, finished ninth in the 2024 standings, but is very much a team on a path of progression, working tirelessly behind the scenes to improve infrastructure, processes and output.
Signing Sainz is somewhat of a coo for Williams and a massive vote of confidence in what the team is trying to achieve and such is the excitement to have received the Spaniard at Grove, F1’s smooth operator has revealed colleagues are practically hanging on his every word.
“Obviously, I have a lot of things that I can talk about from my previous life and what has been very important to me and what I like from this team is that they are extremely excited to hear me, to listen and they are asking a lot of questions in every meeting that I’m in,” Sainz told select media including Motorsport Week.
“Everyone is feeling free also to ask these questions and these meetings are going on for long periods of time and in all the meetings we are exceeding the planned time of one hour that the meeting should take.
“So I see motivation, I see will, I see excitement, I see people that are just willing to make that process as quick as possible and see what we can get from my inside info to make this thing competitive.
“I feel everything that I’ve said is being applied also and I think it could have an impact soon.
“And also very important, I think Alex [Albon] has been extremely open with me about the secrets of the 2024 car, the 2023 car, where we were coming from and this is helping to put both feedbacks together and try to find the right direction to follow.”
Sainz ‘feeling at home’ with Williams
After making his debut with Toro Rosso in 2015, Williams is now Sainz’s fifth team in F1.
His switch from Maranello represents returning to a British-based team for the first time since leaving McLaren at the end of 2020, but despite the big change in scenery and culture, Sainz is “feeling at home” in his new surroundings.
“I like blue, first of all,” Sainz said ahead of the F1 75 launch event at London’s O2 Arena.
“It’s an easier colour to combine with other things. Apart from that, that’s me doing 50% of the teams in Formula 1 in 10 years, so that’s a different team every two years.
“I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing, but it definitely has given me a lot of experience and a lot of information about how different teams work and different organisations can work in different cultures.
“Definitely this is the biggest switch, going from an Italian-based team back to a British-based team.
“It’s definitely going to be a big change again, but nothing that I’m not used to, nothing that I haven’t seen before and obviously a good challenge that I’m excited for and keen to enjoy and keen to fast-track that process of adaptation as much as possible because I feel good, I feel at home, which is an important thing.”
READ MORE – Carlos Sainz reveals the gap Williams is missing to be F1 podium contenders
