Sainz: Williams is my life project

Sainz had a tough start to his Formula 1 career at Williams, as he struggled to get on top of his FW47, and he also had a tough time trying to match his teammate Alex Albon.

But then the former Ferrari driver delivered the perfect weekend in Baku with a qualifying performance that showed his experience in tricky mixed conditions, putting Williams on the front row while Albon crashed.

Sainz also drove a smart race, picking his battles with one target: to remain on the podium. And while he could not fend off George Russell's attack in a much faster Mercedes, the Spaniard managed to finish third.

And while many questioned Sainz's decision to join Williams—he did not have many options, mind you—he insisted he did not need any exoneration.

He said: "For me, the vindication is not so much towards moving to Williams. I always believed in this project. I've said it many times, and I'll say it again—this is my life project.

"If I manage to bring Williams back to being competitive and winning races, it's everything that I care about, and I will put the next three years of my life all my effort into doing that and committing to that.

"I also know that I can do it, because I think I'm good at bringing the team forward," the 31-year-old insisted.

Sainz has always maintained that, despite his struggles, he had the pace, but several factors were at play that forbade him from transforming that into results.

He continued: "It's more vindication of the 14 races that I've had, which is good pace, good adaptation.

"I think out of all of the ones that have changed teams, I think I'm the one that adapted the quickest to the car, but the results were not coming, so I had no proof.

"But finally a result on a day like today where I could show the pace is what I needed," he noted and went on: "This year has been extremely frustrating to not get results—things out of my control, things in my control, bad luck.

"I always said to the team, whenever the first chance that we get to fight for a podium, as long as nothing happens to us and we can score the podium, I'll be happy.

"And that's exactly what happened," he concluded.

(Quotes from Sky Sports F1)