Carlos Sainz is well behind Alexander Albon in the Drivers’ Championship – but the Williams driver emphasizes that his large deficit is by no means representative.
On paper, it has not been a good first season for Carlos Sainz at Williams. After the first 16 races of the 2025 season, the Spaniard has just 16 championship points to his name, while his teammate Alexander Albon already has 70 points.
Not many experts expected the former Red Bull driver to have more than four times as many points as his new teammate at this stage of the season. And according to Sainz himself, this record does not tell the whole story.
Sainz emphasizes that “for a first year” in a new team, his internal qualifying record is not so bad. In fact, although Albon has significantly more points to his name, the two are interestingly tied at 8:8 in qualifying. In the last five qualifying sessions since Silverstone, Sainz has been faster than Albon four times, with Albon only coming out on top once at Spa. Sainz also points out that his race pace is usually “always good.”
But then where does the big difference in points in the world championship come from? “It’s just that we as a team are having great difficulty putting together a result,” says Sainz, who again failed to score points at Monza this weekend, finishing eleventh.
He also had “problems with the battery throughout the race, which we didn’t have on Friday,” he reports, explaining that it’s “always little things” that prevent him from achieving a good result in the end, “despite good pace.”
In Monza, in addition to the battery problems, there was also a collision with Oliver Bearman, without which Sainz would probably have finished in the points. In the end, he was only half a second behind Isack Hadjar in tenth place on Sunday.
Sainz makes it clear that his poor World Championship position has nothing to do with him not getting on with the Williams, emphasizing: “I think I’ve felt good with the car all year. Relatively good.”
That’s because the car doesn’t suit his personal style. “It’s not the driving style I love,” says Sainz, explaining: “There’s a very specific thing you have to pay attention to when driving.” But basically, he doesn’t feel uncomfortable in the car.
