Carlos Sainz experienced one of the most difficult years of his Formula 1 career in 2025—setbacks on the track, doubts off it.
For Carlos Sainz, 2025 was one of the “toughest” periods of his career, following several difficult weekends with the Williams team in Formula 1. Ahead of the race weekend in Singapore, the Spaniard looks back on his season with the Grove-based team. He admits that while his podium finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix boosted his morale, this season has been a brutal challenge overall.
When asked about his expectations for the race in Singapore, he admits that the FW47 may not be suited to the high-downforce track: “Realistically, we always seem to be a little less competitive when we put a wing with more downforce on the car,” says Sainz. “If you look at our best results, they’ve all come on tracks with low downforce, with rear wings that generate little downforce. Our car simply responds better there. But that doesn’t mean I won’t try to deliver a similar performance here as I did in Baku.“
”That has to be my goal from here until the end of the season. Baku was definitely a big motivational boost and even a kind of relief because it confirmed the narrative I’ve been pushing all year: that speed isn’t the problem. I just need to put together a complete weekend. Hopefully, Baku will serve as an example for me to follow until the end of the season.“
When asked how difficult it was to deal with the poor results, most of which were beyond his control, the four-time Grand Prix winner admits that he had doubts: ”It was really very hard. Probably one of the most psychologically difficult moments of my career, considering the number of setbacks I’ve had to deal with this season,“ he says. ”It was particularly difficult for me after the summer break. I came back from the break full of energy, full of motivation, refreshed with a new mindset and a new approach. I had two strong qualifying sessions in Baku and Monza. I was still in good positions in both races. And yet, it was the same pattern as in the first half of the season.”
“I thought to myself: ‘Okay, I’ve changed my approach, I’m full of energy—and then two setbacks in a row that drag me down again.’ It was really anything but easy and very frustrating. I think people could see how frustrated I was.”
“But I didn’t give up, I kept at it, and in the end, it paid off. In that sense, I’m just happy and proud of my resilience, because it was hard to come back full of energy after the summer break, take two real blows to the gut, and still start all over again.”
