As F1 returns from its summer break for the Dutch GP, Carlos Sainz has admitted the opening half of the 2025 season has taken its toll, both mentally and physically. The Spaniard, now in his first season with Williams, spoke candidly about the challenges of adapting to a new team, the importance of the mid-season pause, and his hopes for Zandvoort.
A much-needed reset
When asked if the break had been helpful after a draining start to the year, Sainz explained just how demanding the season had been.
“Yeah, it was a very mentally draining first half of the season,” he admitted. “Because multiple times I was up there with very good pace and feeling competitive. And the results were not coming.
“So definitely a mental reset is helpful in that sense to see things a bit more positively and let the frustration off. Also, I wouldn’t underestimate changing teams always is demanding mentally because it means January and February, which is normally months where you give time to yourself to train, to reset and to decompress. There are months that when you change teams, you spend extra time in the simulator, extra time travelling, extra time obviously draining energy.
“And you get to July, August, a bit on the limit of the energy because your January and February has been more demanding than if you’ve been in a team for three or four years where you’re just used to everything. And you don’t need to relearn all the names, all the people and all the simulator and stuff. So definitely the break was needed.
“But at the same time, I had a decent weekend in Hungary, and I was like, ‘maybe this could be a bit of momentum carrier,’ but the break came.”
Fighting in Budapest
Sainz’s Hungarian GP provided that glimpse of encouragement. Starting in the midfield, the Spaniard found himself in the thick of the battles throughout a chaotic race. For much of the afternoon he was running on the fringes of the points, defending hard against faster cars and showing strong racecraft in his Williams.
However, a bold move from Kimi Antonelli dropped Sainz out of the top ten and he went on to box again, while a collision involving Pierre Gasly in the closing laps added further frustration to his afternoon. Despite missing out on points, Sainz left Budapest buoyed by the pace he had shown compared to earlier rounds, calling it “a decent weekend” that hinted at the possibility of better results to come.
Expectations for Zandvoort
Looking ahead to the F1 Dutch GP, Sainz struck a cautious but open-minded tone regarding Williams’ chances at the Zandvoort circuit. Alex Albon qualified on the second row in 2023.
When asked about his expectations, he said, “Depends who you talk to.”
“You talk to the team in a way, and you see people optimistic because they’ve had good results here in the past. Difficult to understand why.
“Because you look at the track profile and the type of corner and I see no reason why we should be competitive in a track like this. But for some reason the car has been three years in a row Q3 or very competitive. But I still don’t understand why.
“I will need to feel it tomorrow why. I wish it continues the same because it’s what we need and it would be good news.”
With the second half of the season beginning at Zandvoort, Sainz will be eager to build on the positives from Hungary and convert them into consistent results. Whether Sainz and Williams can show competitiveness at the F1 Dutch GP is to be determined, but may prove decisive in providing the Spaniard with the momentum he was seeking before the break.
