After months of deliberations over his future, it is Williams who Carlos Sainz chooses to join from the 2025 season; Sainz has lost his Ferrari seat to Lewis Hamilton for next year; Williams boss James Vowles hails the significance of Sainz’s signing after beating rivals to Spaniard’s signature.
Williams has signed outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz for the 2025 Formula 1 season on a two-year deal.
Sainz has been seeking a 2025 seat since Ferrari announced in February that it would replace him with Lewis Hamilton next year.
Photo byWilliams F1
Ambitious Williams had significantly pushed to sign the three-time race winner to partner Alex Albon. The Grove-based team has beaten Alpine and Sauber to Sainz’s signature, with the Spaniard agreeing on a deal for the 2025 and 2026 seasons—with options to extend beyond that.
He will replace American Logan Sargeant as Albon’s team-mate in one of F1’s strongest driver line-ups.
Williams’ boss, James Vowles, described Sainz’s signing as a strong statement of intent.
“I am very happy to announce that I will be joining Williams Racing from 2025 onwards,” said Sainz, who has been at Ferrari since 2021.
Photo byWilliams F1
However, I am confident that Williams is the right place to continue my F1 journey. I am incredibly proud of joining such a historic and successful team, where many of my childhood heroes drove in the past and made their mark on our sport. The ultimate goal of bringing Williams back to where it belongs, at the front of the grid, is a challenge that I embrace with excitement and positivity. This team has all the ingredients to make history again, and starting on January 1, I will do my absolute best to drive Williams forward alongside every single member of the team. - Carlos Sainz
Sainz was a candidate to take Hamilton’s place at Mercedes or a seat with Red Bull before being left with a choice between Alpine, Williams, or Sauber. Sauber will become Audi in 2026.
‘Sainz-Williams fit is perfect’ - Vowles pulls off driver coup.
Red Bull was not an option. Mercedes will likely promote teenage protege Andrea Kimi Antonelli to Hamilton’s seat if they cannot make an audacious swoop for Max Verstappen happen for at least next year.
However, given his pedigree and reputation as one of F1’s most consistent and intelligent performers over ten seasons, Sainz emerged as a significant target for several teams further down the grid with ambitions to improve their fortunes.
Indeed, in a frank public admission at June’s Spanish GP, Sainz’s home race, Williams team boss Vowles declared that Sainz was his number one target to partner Albon.
Despite Audi’s long-standing interest and Alpine’s late renewed push, Vowles has now got his man, representing an undoubted show of faith in Williams from their new star signing.
Carlos joining Williams is a strong statement of intent from both parties. Carlos has repeatedly demonstrated that he is one of the most talented drivers on the grid, with a race-winning pedigree that underlines our upward trajectory. Carlos brings experience, performance, and a fierce drive to extract every millisecond from the team and car; the fit is perfect. Alex and Carlos will have one of the most formidable driver line-ups on the grid. His experience will guide us into the new regulations in 2026. -James Vowles, Williams Team Principal.
The highly regarded Vowles, previously strategy director at Mercedes, is in his second year in charge of the legendary team. During F1 domination through the 1980s and 1990s, the team won nine constructors’ titles but has since fallen into far worse times over the past two decades.
Having finished 10th and last in the standings in four of the five seasons before Vowles’ arrival, Williams enjoyed their best season since 2017 to finish seventh last year - although they sit only ninth so far after 14 races in 2024, between Alpine and Sauber, with four points.
However, Vowles has repeatedly insisted that the work and investment behind the scenes to modernize the team’s working practices and infrastructure is the main priority for the coming seasons and will ultimately transform them back into front-runners.
And having already tied down former Red Bull driver Albon to a new multi-year term in May, the arrival of Sainz underlines that Williams means business - even if it means that pressure will eventually ramp up on them to provide the stellar pairing with a car to challenge.
The team’s most realistic next chance to jump back up the order on the track will be the following significant regulation change in 2026 when the sport’s new chassis and engine rules come into effect.
Significantly, Williams will continue to be powered into the new era by Mercedes engines, which produce one of the best power units, just as they did when they introduced the current hybrid turbos in 2014.
Sainz will race for his fifth different team in F1 since joining the grid nine years ago at Toro Rosso.
I want to thank James Vowles and the entire board of Williams for their trust and determination. Their solid leadership and convictions have played an essential role in my decision-making. -Carlos Sainz
SOURCE: Formula1.com , WilliamsF1.com
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Douglas Pilarski is an award-winning Writer & Journalist based in Las Vegas. He writes about luxury goods, exotic cars, horology, tech, food, lifestyle, and business.
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