Carlos Sainz, the team’s marquee signing, is frustrated with his points haul this season – with the Spaniard describing misfortune and poor execution as key limitations.<\/p>\n
Sainz unhappy with 2025 results<\/h2>\n
When it was announced Sainz would join Williams, it was among the bigger moves of last year’s driver market.<\/p>\n
The four-time race winner is easily the biggest name to sign a contract with the Grove-based team since Felipe Massa<\/a> in 2014.<\/p>\n Because of this, the Spaniard was widely expected to lead the team this season – or at the very least match the efforts of teammate Alex Albon.<\/p>\n Williams’ performance, which looked promising even in pre-season, only added excitement for this new partnership.<\/p>\n Of course, things have been more difficult than Sainz would have anticipated.<\/p>\n To some extent, the 30-year-old has ben slightly slower than his teammate – not necessarily a surprise since it’s his first year with the team.<\/p>\n With that said, the difference between Sainz and Albon<\/a> is far smaller than the 54 points separating them in the standings.<\/p>\n Several factors, often boiling down to race-day incidents and operational errors, have been costly for the #55 car.<\/p>\n Sainz shared some of his frustrations after the chequered flag in Hungary:<\/p>\n “It was a cleaner weekend for us, it’s just a shame it’s not on a weekend where the car is strong…<\/em><\/p>\n “I’m leaving the first half of the season slightly disappointed, as we didn’t maximise the weekends where we were stronger.<\/em><\/p>\n “But hopefully, the second half of the season is the other way around…<\/em><\/p>\n “We’ll reset, recharge and come back stronger for the rest of the season.”<\/em><\/p>\n For the first time in almost a decade, Williams often find themselves at the front of the midfield.<\/p>\n This is good news for Sainz and Albon, who can aim for the top 10 almost every weekend. Only at very specific bogey tracks, such as Barcelona<\/a> or Hungary, does the British team struggle.<\/p>\n Putting aside these outliers, Albon is a regular name among the points-finishers. For Sainz, who sits a lowly 16th in the standings, this has not been the case.<\/p>\n With Albon securing big results in races such as Australia, Imola and Spa, he is responsible for most of Williams’ points this year.<\/p>\n Whilst team principal James Vowles will be pleased with the Thai driver’s efforts, he will be aiming for a cleaner second half of the season on the opposite side of the garage.<\/p>\n Aston Martin<\/a>, Sauber<\/a> and VCARB are all within striking distance of Williams in the standings. In recent Grand Prix, they have all matched or even superseded the British squad.<\/p>\n This puts Williams at risk, which James Vowles identified in his comments after the Hungarian GP:<\/p>\n “It’s great to be in 5th in the Championship,” <\/em>the former Mercedes engineer outlined.<\/p>\n “However, we have to recognise it will be a close fought battle to the end of the year.<\/em><\/p>\n “And we have to maximise every opportunity that comes towards us.”<\/em><\/p>\n Main photo: Williams media gallery<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Williams finish the first half of 2025 with 70 points, putting them 5th in the standings and on track for their best F1 campaign in almost a decade. Of course, with the midfield so tightly contested, there is no guarantee Williams keep this position until the end of the year. Carlos Sainz, the team’s marquee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":36586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,2551,2360,94],"class_list":["post-36584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-fw47","tag-sainz","tag-williams"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36584"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36593,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36584\/revisions\/36593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/WilliamsF1_174365_HiRes-1024x684.jpg\")
03.08.2025. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 14, Hungarian Grand Prix, Budapest, Hungary, Race Day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/WilliamsF1_174155_HiRes-1024x683.jpg\")
02.08.2025. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 14, Hungarian Grand Prix, Budapest, Hungary, Qualifying Day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nA tough battle until the end of the year<\/h4>\n