Carlos Sainz’s F1 Azerbaijan GP saw him claim his first podium with Williams in P3 after qualifying P2 on Saturday. The Spaniard’s weekend marked a turning point in what had been a challenging debut season with his new team. He finished behind race winner, Max Verstappen and George Russell.
Pure emotion after Azerbaijan GP
Speaking immediately after the race, during his track interview, Sainz struggled to contain his emotions about his Azerbaijan GP result. “Honestly, I cannot describe how happy I am, how good this feels. This is even better than my first ever podium that I did.“
The Williams driver emphasized how the team had finally converted their underlying pace into results. “We’ve been fighting hard all year and finally today, we just proved that when we have the speed — we’ve had it all year — and everything comes together, we can do some amazing things together. And yeah, today we nailed the race. Not one mistake, and we managed to beat a lot of cars that yesterday I wasn’t expecting to beat,” he stated.
Overcoming a difficult year
When asked about the team’s strategic execution during his Azerbaijan GP performance, Sainz praised Williams’ ability to finally capitalize on their opportunities.
“I’m extremely proud of everyone at Williams for pushing through our very difficult year. I think we’ve proven to everyone the massive step that we took compared to last year. We are on the rise; we are in the right direction.”
The Spaniard then reflected on the journey that led to his podium after a tough campaign with some bad luck but also a couple of errors from his side.
“Unfortunately, with me, we’ve had a lot of bad luck, a lot of incidents — very difficult to convert all that pace into results. But now I understand why it all happened, because the first podium needed to come like this. It’s just life, you know? Life just sometimes brings you those bad moments to give you a very nice one, and this stays much better than any other thing that I was expecting. So, just a life lesson, to keep believing, keep trusting yourself, your team around you, your procedures, everything that you’re doing — because sooner or later, it always pays off.“
Weekend execution
During the post-race press conference, Sainz highlighted the team’s complete execution when it came to his Azerbaijan GP podium.
“The key was probably just nailing a perfect weekend from practice, quali, to race. It’s what I’ve been looking for since the beginning of the season — just to nail a perfect weekend,” Sainz explained.
“I think we had almost a perfect one in Jeddah when we scored maximum points, but then the rest of the season has been really up and down with a lot more downs than ups. Very unlucky in some cases. Job not well done in others — by me or by other things that were in our control. But I always said to the team from the beginning that whenever a first big opportunity of fighting for a podium comes, as long as we have everything under control and nothing goes wrong and we prove to everyone what we’re doing, and we get that podium, then I’ll be OK.“
Despite starting P2, Sainz admitted the podium seemed unlikely given the competition behind them.
“And it’s exactly what ended up happening today. We had our chance starting from P2. Probably, if you asked many of us yesterday, we didn’t believe the podium was actually achievable with so many fast cars behind.
“But I think we’ve had good pace this year, we just didn’t have many opportunities to show it. Today we had a very good opportunity to show our very good pace, and we managed to stay on the podium. Only George managed to beat us with very good pace, but it was a very well executed race,” he concluded.
Williams gamble pays off
When asked about his comment during his trackside interview saying that this podium is better than his first ever F1 podium, Sainz explained why this result held special meaning.
“Yeah, 100%. This one means even more just because of, obviously, a year ago when I put my bet on Williams, and I said I’m going to this team because I truly believe in this project, and I truly believe that this team is on the rise. I’m very comfortable in this working environment, also very comfortable with everyone around me.”
His move to Williams had raised eyebrows in the paddock, but Sainz had quickly adapted to his new surroundings and shown impressive pace from the outset.
“And I have actually been pretty fast all year with the car. I think out of everyone that’s changed teams — which is not an easy task nowadays — I’ve been very competitive from the first race, very quick, but I didn’t have results with me.“
Despite showing speed all season, the tangible results had been missing until Baku.
“I didn’t have results to prove to myself, the team, and everyone that some good things were about to come. But, in the end, they did. I think life has taught me many times that this sometimes happens — that you have a run of misfortune or bad performances, but then suddenly life gives you back if you keep working hard with something really sweet like this.“
Focusing on Williams’ success
Carlos Sainz managed to get his first podium for Williams before his replacement at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton. When asked about his thought Sainz stated. “What everyone else does is not my business, to be honest.”
Instead, he focused on how he got the opportunity and ran with it.
“What I care about is that the first opportunity that I had to score a podium with Williams, and the first opportunity Williams had to score a podium, we took it, we scored it, and there it is.“
Limited remaining opportunities
Looking ahead from his Azerbaijan GP success, Sainz provided realistic expectations for Williams’ remaining races in 2025.
“Not much more than this, to be honest,” is what he answered after being asked what else is possible. He broke down the team’s prospects across different circuit types. “I think the podium is — unless something crazy happens — maybe our best chance. Probably Vegas will be our next best track to try and maybe put together a top five or a top six, which is what we sometimes can achieve when everything goes right.
“Apologies, it’s a tough ask. I’ll fight for it if it comes, like you’ve seen today. But the rest, for example in Qatar, I don’t think we will score points. That’s how much our performance swings. But then we will have the Austins, the Mexicos. We will be a pure midfield car where we can maybe get in the points and keep our championship going,” he stated.
The Spaniard concluded, stating he is “so excited to see what happens in those races.“
Was second place within reach?
Sainz revealed his tactical thinking when questioned about whether second place was achievable during his Azerbaijan GP. He made note that the tyre advantage did not materialize as expected following a long stint on mediums and switching to hards. George Russell ultimately overcut him.
He began saying, “I was racing for second the whole race, but I think it was around the first 10 laps of the hard tyre where I was expecting to be clearly quicker than George on a new hard versus his old hard that I said, ‘If now I can put my car in front of him before he boxes, we have a chance for P2.’
“But then they started telling me his lap times on those used hards versus my new hard, and I saw there was no chance. They were just simply too quick for us today. So congrats to him and Merc for that. Kimi was also coming quick behind, and I had to change my focus to getting the P3 rather than fighting for the P2,” he stated.
Disadvantage due to grid position
Max Verstappen began on the hard tyres, with Carlos Sainz right behind him. When asked whether this presented an opportunity during his Azerbaijan GP, Sainz explained his pre-race analysis.
“No. I thought maybe I could have done the same, if I knew. But I knew we had measured during the whole weekend that the left-hand side of the grid was a lot less grip than the right-hand side.”
The track conditions had been thoroughly analyzed throughout practice, giving Williams clear data on the grip differential between grid positions.
“So even if I was on a step softer compound, I knew that even with a good start and the short run to Turn 1, with that left side being very dirty, it was probably not enough to get him at the start. I still got a decent start, but it was not enough to put him under pressure. And I think for the hard tyres, he must have done a good start.“
Confidence in race pace
Sainz revealed his straightforward approach when it came to his strategy during the Azerbaijan GP. He claimed that he did not follow any specific strategy during the race and instead “just knew.“
“I think on long runs on Friday, I saw my lap times and I saw that I’m actually very quick, very competitive. So if it’s not easy to overtake back there, they’re going to struggle to get to me because I’m not slow. That’s why yesterday, I said I was dreaming about the podium, but in reality, I was kind of believing that if we nailed everything, we could actually make it happen because our pace has genuinely been good all year in this kind of tracks,” he stated.
The Friday practice data had given him confidence that Williams could hold position in race conditions, which informed his optimistic pre-race predictions.
“I’ve been quick. The car has been quick. And if we nail everything, I thought a top five was possible. And if we do everything perfect, maybe even the podium.“
