What’s going on with Carlos Sainz? In his own words

While Williams teammate Alex Albon has scored 46 of the team’s 59 points, Sainz has found himself plagued by poor reliability, race-day mishaps, and missed opportunities.

“I think everything that could go wrong this year so far has gone wrong for me,” Sainz admitted to reporters during the British Grand Prix weekend. “It’s been a run of races where we've had highlights and some good moments, but in the majority of it it's been very scrappy from every part involved.”

Currently sitting fifth in the 2025 F1 Constructors’ Championship, Williams have shown midfield strength on paper, but Sainz has not scored since Canada. He failed to start the Austrian Grand Prix due to a car issue and was knocked down the order at Silverstone after contact with Charles Leclerc, ultimately finishing 12th.

Sainz admitted: “Definitely we are going through a tough period with reliability issues, with weekend execution problems as you could see [in Austria], and the last few weekends I think have been extremely difficult for us as a team."

“For me on my side of the garage, running through multiple issues in Qualifying and the race, the one thing that keeps me hopeful and confident is that my speed has always been there throughout the year,” Sainz said.

Despite the frustration, he believes the Williams FW47 has untapped potential and insists that performance is not the issue: “The one thing that keeps me smiling is the speed that I have in the car and with the team.

“I know we should be finishing every weekend as top of the midfield, except for maybe Barcelona and a few other places. The speed is there, I feel comfortable in the car, we just don't seem to get a break in terms of luck and execution of the weekend, and reliability.

"Just way too many issues for the car we have, but at some point it's going to end and as soon as I get a bit of momentum going I know what we're capable of doing," added Sainz who will look to turn the tide at the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix, where he will aim for a clean weekend to finally convert speed into results.

(Reporting by Agnes Carlier)