Carlos Sainz has endured a tricky start to his 2025 F1 season with Williams. He left Ferrari at the end of 2024, after the team chose to sign Lewis Hamilton on a multi-year deal. Since then, Sainz has only scored 13 points. That stands in sharp contrast to the 148 points he had earned by the same stage in the previous season with Ferrari.
There are questions surrounding the FW47’s reliability for Williams, with both Sainz and Albon facing issues mostly within the race. It appears that the car certainly has pace, but the unknowns far outweigh the points that could have been earnt. Sainz has also been adjusting to his new environment but hasn’t managed to fully put everything together just yet.
Only a trickle of points at the halfway point
At the halfway mark of the 2025 F1 season, Sainz has only been able to string together 13 points across the 12 races. He has two P8 finishes, in both Saudi Arabia and Imola, which brought in 4 points each, with some race promotions and a trickle of other points following behind.
Saudi Arabia marked Sainz’s strongest Qualifying performance of the season so far. He secured P6 as the fastest midfield driver, finishing five places ahead of teammate Albon. In the race, Sainz crossed the line in P8, with Albon close behind in P9. Showing smart teamwork in the final laps, Sainz deliberately kept Albon within DRS range, allowing the Williams duo to hold off a late charge from Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, who was closing in from P10.
When it rains, it pours
Sainz made his debut with Williams on the street’s of Albert Park. Starting the year off strong, he finished P2 in FP1 and followed that by placing higher than P11 in the remaining practice sessions in Australia. His success didn’t transition over to the wet and rainy race, where he crashed out on the first lap as he attempted to get on the throttle. He had a positive outlook, even chucking on his strategist hat to assist teammate Albon with tyre choices to come across the line in P5.
The second time he fell short of the chequered flag (and had started the race) was in Bahrain. Shortly after his only pit stop from soft to medium tyres, Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda collided with the right-hand side of Sainz’s car, damaging the sidepod and forcing him to retire from a race where he had a strong chance of scoring points.
FW47’s reliability issues
Across the first half of the 2025 F1 season, there has been discussions surrounding the reliability of the FW47 in races. This is highly evident with teammate Albon retiring 3 races in-a-row due to technical issues.
Albon, who was running in P6 at the time of the Austrian Grand Prix, had to retire his car due to a mechanical issue. Earlier in the same race, Sainz struggled to get the car started ahead of the formation lap. Once the marshals gave the car a little hand, he was on his way, with an aborted start to the race, or so they thought.
Sainz made his way into the pitlane when the rear of his car caught alight due to a brake issue. With the car out of the race, and Sainz’s chance at points gone, Williams found themselves back at the drawing board.
At Silverstone, Sainz and Albon ran race simulation programs in FP1, eager to iron out any issues that could resurface on race day. Both clearly showed they had the pace, but when Sunday arrives, the FW47’s reliability often raises concerns. Both drivers looked set to score points, but on the final lap, Sainz collided with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, knocking both Leclerc and Sainz out of the points. Albon crossed the line in P8 in the wet and damp race.
Sainz vs Albon
Even with Albon not finishing 3 races back to back (Spain, Canada and Austria), he still remains 33 points ahead of Sainz this season. He has had 3 top 5 finishes in Australia, Miami and Imola, and only been out of the points on one occasion (without taking into consideration the issues and not finishing the races).
Albon has also been the lead driver through Williams’ rebuild phase over the last few years, particularly in 2023 and 2024. Could it be his added time with the team and his trust within them, that is putting him on a better trajectory?
Sainz has had some pretty rotten luck at points this season, nonetheless.
Where to for the remainder of 2025?
While Williams are undoubtedly having a much stronger season compared to previous years, they look set to extract even more points from the FW47 this time around. Both drivers are confident with the pace, with their key focus on eliminating previous technical issues for further races. Sainz does have guaranteed frustrations heading into the second half of the 2025 F1 season, but with the two-week reset in full effect, Sainz has some time to reflect on the season so far and aim to put more points on the board in the future.
