Carlos Sainz has said he takes no pleasure from Lewis Hamilton’s struggles at Ferrari, after a positive first year with Formula 1 rivals Williams.
The Spaniard enjoyed a bright second half of the year at the Grove-based squad, after a difficult opening phase of the campaign transitioning from the Scuderia.
Sainz took Williams’ first podium in eight years in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and followed it up with another in Qatar, helping the team to fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
Hamilton, by contrast, endured the worst season of his career, becoming only the seventh full-time Ferrari driver in its history to complete a season without a podium.
But for Sainz, there is no joy earned from watching a driver in his old seat labouring to mediocre points finishes, instead finding it in his own results this season.
“No, I am satisfied with my two podiums,” he told Spanish publication Marca. “I am not at all satisfied with the evil of another.
“I’m pleased that I’ve achieved two podiums with Williams in Baku and Qatar, and another in the Austin Sprint and I’m pleased to do it when last year there were many doubts about being able to achieve it.
“When I announced that I was going to Williams, I felt that some people felt sorry for me. It was a bit of a weird feeling. Some journalists, social networks, I don’t know, I didn’t see it that way.
“For me it was a new chapter, another opportunity, and when I arrived here in the paddock on the Tuesday of the Abu Dhabi 2024 test, dressed in a white helmet and overalls and got in the Williams and got to work, I was just thinking about the future. Not in the past.
“In the end look, this year things have gone well for me as I thought they could and that is what satisfies me the most.”
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