Williams Sporting Director Sven Smeets has praised the “big impact” Carlos Sainz has made at the team since joining from Formula 1 rivals Ferrari over the winter.
The Spaniard was ousted by the Scuderia after it decided to replace him with Lewis Hamilton for this season, which was announced before the start of the last.
After a great deal of speculation as to where the 30-year-old would find himself next, the Grove-based squad convinced him to take a chance on its project to return to the top.
It has been, on the face of it, a difficult debut campaign for Sainz, scoring just 16 points so far, 38 less than team-mate Alex Albon.
But Smeets conveyed the unseen influence that Sainz has brought to the team, saying his years at a team like Ferrari are giving Williams an added ingredient.
“Carlos is a fantastic person to work with,” he told Motorsport.com.
“He’s made a big impact across the board – not just on the car and technical side, but also in how the race team operates and how we’re preparing for 2026.
“His experience at multiple teams and in race-winning machinery has brought us something we were probably still missing.”
Sainz recently discussed the “philosophy change” he feels Williams needs to return to being title challengers again.
It has been undeniably a learning curve for him to adapt to the inner workings of the team, and Smeets said that those adjustments are being made.
“As he mentioned himself, he had to get used to the philosophy of our car,” he continued.
“There’s a big difference between our car and the Ferrari. But that’s going better and better now.
“He’s working really well with Alex Albon. We’re very happy, and I’m expecting a strong second half of the season.”
Albon had previously driven alongside Logan Sargeant and Nicholas Latifi, who, with the greatest of respect, lacked the skill and racecraft that Sainz possesses.
Smeets intimated that a more even balance in ability between the two men has given Williams a chance to showcase more equilibrium in how personnel work towards their demands.
“Both sides of the garage are now working at the same level – and more importantly, they’re working closely together,” he explained.
“We’re able to divide the workload better during FP1 and FP2, and combine the knowledge gained to decide what’s the best way forward for the rest of the weekend. That’s hugely valuable to us.”
Albon and Sainz ‘pushing Williams hard’
Smeets added that both Sainz and Albon are asking a lot of the team, but on the same page, which is enabling the team to meet its goals that little bit more simply.
“On track, they’re competitors,” he said, “but in the garage it’s all about teamwork – pushing the team forward, improving the car and supporting the factory with its development.
“We now have two drivers pushing the team hard, and they’re doing so in the same direction, which makes things a bit easier.”
The evenness between both drivers even comes down to how they set the FW47 up in a similar fashion, with Smeets saying their set-ups “aren’t far apart, that’s usually a good sign.”
“If they go in different directions, it might indicate something’s not quite right,” he elaborated.
“Over the first six months, he’s pointed out a lot of things we could do differently or better.
“Some are things we can only implement next year, but many short-term gains we’ve already adopted.”
These can be even small things, such as, according to Smeets: “Preparing the tyres behind the garage – how you warm them and how you stack them.
“Some of Carlos’ previous teams did that slightly differently in wet conditions.
“It’s about small details, but they can gain you milliseconds. And when that adds up, it becomes a tenth. That’s when it starts to matter.”
It is not just the expertise on and off the track that Sainz is bringing. It is also the clout and popularity he brings which is quite literally paying dividends.
The Sainz factor enables Williams to reap financial rewards
“We did a demo run with Carlos in Madrid,” Smeets recalls. “They expected 5,000 to 7,000 fans, but 25,000 showed up.
“It ended up being one of our best merchandise sales days ever,” Smeets said.
“When we started, they attracted around 500 to 1,000 fans,” Smeets said of fan events at Grands Prix.
“But if you look at the numbers we drew this year in Australia, Miami, Barcelona and London, those are now serious events in their own right.”
Smeets concluded that Williams, as a result, is now receiving even more interest from young drivers in relation to its academy programme.
“His arrival underlines how seriously we’re looking at the future, and that helps massively in our conversations with young drivers and their management teams.
“We’re now getting far more enquiries than before,” said Smeets, before adding that Williams remains selective for the programme.
“We want to keep our focus on a handful of talents – ideally one per category. But Carlos has given a major boost to the entire project.”
READ MORE – Carlos Sainz laments backlash towards Lando Norris’ openness on mental health
Discussion about this post