Carlos Sainz has declared that Williams is “on the rise” after finishing third in the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the team’s first in four years.
The Spaniard made the most of the dramatic and truncated qualifying on Saturday to take second on the grid, and held strong all race to lose just one place, finishing third.
It was the Grove-based squad’s first top-three result since George Russell’s second place at the 2021 Belgian GP, scored due to an early rain-affected red flag.
In full race conditions, it was the team’s first since Lance Stroll’s third place, also in Baku, in 2017.
An emotional Sainz dubbed his performance his first “smooth operation” for Williams over team radio, quickly adding: “…and not the last.”
After the race, Sainz said it was an even better feeling for him than his first-ever F1 podium, in the 2019 Brazilian GP.
“Honestly, I cannot describe how happy I am, how good this feels,” he said after the race. “It tastes even better than my first podium that I did.
“We’ve been fighting hard all year, and finally proved today that when we have the speed – we’ve had it all year – and everything comes together, we can do some amazing things together.
“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.”
“We’ve proven to everyone the massive step we’ve taken compared to last year. We are on the rise, in the right direction.”
Sainz concludes 2025 bad luck ‘is just life’ and makes first Williams podium sweeter
Sainz has suffered with a fair chunk of bad luck this season, finding little to no reward for a series of impressive drives, with Alex Albon taking the lion’s share of the teams points so far.
But with his Anglo-Thai team-mate struggling this weekend, Sainz was left to fight the good fight for Williams solo, leaving him philosophical about his bad fortune up until this milestone moment.
“Unfortunately, with me, we’ve had a lot of bad luck, a lot of incidents, and it’s been very difficult to turn all that pace into results, but now I understand why it all happened because the first podium needed to come like this,” he said.
“It’s just life. Life sometimes brings you those bad moments to bring you a very nice one, and this tastes much better than anything I was expecting.
“It’s a life lesson, to keep believing, trusting yourself, your team around you, your procedures, because sooner or later, it always pays off.”
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