Carlos Sainz has admitted Williams being in podium contention in Formula 1 in 2025 would be a “surprise”, despite McLaren’s vow that a midfield team can win a race this season.
The upcoming campaign is well-poised to be among the closest the sport has seen at the sharp end as the top four teams were all victorious across the last five races in 2024.
However, the intense development race has created a vast divide between the leading quartet and the rest, with fourth-placed Mercedes 374 points above Aston Martin.
Indeed, it wasn’t until November that a team outside Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes or Red Bull scored a podium, as both Alpine drivers capitalised on torrential conditions in Brazil.
McLaren, though, believes the inevitable convergence that will continue to occur in 2025 might even inspire an unexpected race winner to emerge at some point this season.
But Sainz, who was made to vacate a race-winning drive with Ferrari, estimates his new team Williams is at least three-tenths short of troubling the top three places on merit.
Put to him that it would be a surprise to be in the battle to score a podium at the season-opener in Australia next month, Sainz told media including Motorsport Week at the F1 75 launch event: “It would be a surprise, yeah.
“I think you guys have seen and heard us already talk about this year and we’ve talked about a bit of a transition year, a preparation year to get ready for the opportunities that ‘26 might bring, to bridge that gap from the midfield where Williams was last year to the top four teams, even though that gap is smaller than ever because you could see in qualifying at times last year there were no more than three or four tenths among the top teams and the midfield teams, those three or four tenths are very difficult to find in this budget gap, very constrained regulations era, so I think it’s going to be a challenge to even get into I think top 10 positions with the competition there was last year in this part of the field.”
Sainz not expecting immediate Williams success
Sainz, who achieved two victories in his last campaign with Ferrari, has insisted he will be prepared to capitalise on opportunities that might present themselves during 2025.
“So I’m ready for those fights and see what comes, if a podium comes in the season then I’ll be more than welcoming, but I’m not expecting to go into the first race fighting for podiums or even top fives,” he added.
The multiple-time race-winning Spaniard has been cited as an integral addition to the ongoing rebuild that Williams hopes will culminate in an eventual return to the front.
With the Grove-based squad without a single race win since 2012, Sainz expressed that it would be his “proudest” achievement to stand on the rostrum in Williams overalls.
“I’m in my 10th year in Formula 1 and I’m joining Williams in a very important moment where it’s going through some key changes in its history and nothing would make me happier or more proud, it would definitely be the proudest moment of my career if one day I can be on a podium with this team,” he concluded.
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