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Carlos Sainz handed astonishing verdict in Williams revival
Jacques Villeneuve has claimed Carlos Sainz "has basically changed"
Williams after the Grove-based squad enjoyed its best F1 season in
almost a decade. The 137 points the Spanish driver and Alex Albon
achieved over the 2025 campaign were just one fewer than the mark
set by Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in 2016. Williams finished
fifth in the constructors' championship both times — as it also did
in 2017, but with only 83 points — and was already in a slow
decline by that stage, which accelerated in the intervening years.
Numerous lean seasons followed as the team facilities and
infrastructure became outdated. However, under the leadership of
team principal James Vowles, the long-overdue modernisation of the
team is underway, and its recovery from backmarker to the sharp end
is gathering momentum. Signing Sainz was one piece of the puzzle,
and after a difficult start, the four-time grand prix winner, too,
started picking up steam. He ended the campaign with two podium
finishes and outscored Albon by 48 points to three over the final 8
rounds to end the year just nine points behind his team-mate. The
31-year-old has moved teams a lot during his F1 career, from Toro
Rosso to Renault to McLaren and then Ferrari, before joining
Williams. He has developed a reputation for improving those he
races for, and now he is being credited with helping restore the
nine-time constructors' champions by the last driver who lifted the
crown with it. "I was surprised by the smaller teams like Williams
and Sauber, Williams especially," Villeneuve, who is now a Williams
ambassador, told PokerScout when asked who he felt was the unsung
hero of the F1 season. "Carlos Sainz has basically changed the
team. The team stepped forward and got results that were much
higher than what they were anticipating because the car had really
evolved." The 1997 F1 drivers' champion put Stake, which has now
become Audi, in the same bracket, adding: "You could say the same
with Sauber and with Nico Hulkenburg and Gabriel Bortoleto. They
were a bit of a surprise," before expanding his point about Sainz.
"I was expecting it from Sainz. That’s why he was signed," the
11-time grand prix winner said. "The team is making the right
racing decisions in terms of the drivers. It’s racing after all.
And that’s what they’re doing."
