Williams’ Surprising Performance: Sainz Speaks Out on Stopped Car Development
May 4 – Carlos Sainz admits he is “angry” about Williams’ decision to essentially abandon all development of this year’s Formula 1 car.
After a difficult early adjustment period, the Spaniard is finally settling into his new cockpit after four years at Ferrari.
Ousted by Lewis Hamilton’s arrival, his options for 2025 were mainly limited to midfield teams, but Williams boss James Vowles thinks Sainz’s ultimate choice has now been proven correct.
“I’m very proud that Carlos believed me and I hope the world sees what he saw now,” he told AS newspaper. “Carlos is a key part of our progress this year.”
However, that progress is now likely to stall completely, as 30-year-old Sainz reveals that all development of the 2025 Williams car has been called off.
“I think this car has a lot of potential,” he lamented in Miami. “If we could really develop it and put the improvements I could ask the team to make in the wind tunnel, and improve two or three things on the car that are currently not so good, I’m convinced the team could make huge strides forward,” Sainz told DAZN.
He revealed: “Our decision is not to invest in this year’s car and to put all the budget and wind tunnel hours into the 2026 car and focus on that.
“It even makes me angry, because when you see that you are three tenths from pole and you still see the great potential that we have ahead of us, in only my sixth race, and with a car that still has several points that I don’t like, I would like to see what we would be capable of doing.
“But for this year, I think this is the best we can hope for. Circuit by circuit, we’ll do a little better or worse, but this is what it is.”
Sainz concluded by clarifying that he supports Williams’ approach, while boss Vowles explains that there actually are some new parts coming for the 2025 car.
“We have performance in the pipeline,” Vowles said.
“There’s a rule change at race nine where everyone will have to change their front wing, and we’re taking that opportunity to bring more performance. And then a little bit more after that, although not much. Just some progress on small things we’ve found in recent months.
“But the real goal is 2026. Everything we’ll do will bring a little bit more performance to this year’s car, but nothing about 2026 will be sacrificed.”
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