Carlos Sainz’s revenge arc has begun

Okay, uh, wow. Nobody expected that. Nobody expected that. But not James, though. He clearly saw the signs. Okay, that was terrible. I'm sorry, the winter break is already getting to me, but yeah, Williams, I don't think they care. They've got their man now. They're sitting pretty. Yep. Carlos Sainz has started cooking immediately, with fresh ingredients all the way from Sainsbury's, in only his second day of Williams' life. Not too dissimilar from the tagline of the British supermarket, Carlos Sainz being at Williams is good food for all of us. He is going to be cooking up a storm. By the way, really quickly, I am doing a flash sale of my 2024 lanyards. You can find them in the link below. It's only going to be around for the next 24 hours or so, so if you want to get it before they're gone completely, then you know what to do. Now, I can already hear that some of you out there, in reflection of what happened during the Abu Dhabi test, are going to be saying, until Q3 in Melbourne next year happens, do not read in to the times between one driver and another driver from another team. And to some extent, that is correct. Teams are doing all sorts of things at the moment with this so-called young driver test meant for rookies, even though nigh on half the runners were neither a young nor a rookie or are currently on the grid. Looking at you, Nico. You and your P4 and a Sauber. But nevertheless, there is plenty that we can easily infer from the Tuesday test. And no, it's not just for the fact that neither Luke Browning or Carlos Sainz crashed the car for once, actually managing to put over 250 laps on the board for Williams, so that's not a bad going. But from just one day, I think we can easily say that the partnership of Carlos Sainz with Williams is off to a great start and there could be easily exciting things to come, simply for the fact that the workaholic mentality that many people are pinning on Carlos Sainz seems to be completely and utterly compatible. And that maybe the trend of Carlos improving the lot of a team that he signs up for by the time he arrives and then leaves might continue with Williams. And that maybe the Spaniard isn't just at Williams for some kind of holding pattern, waiting for the first opportunity to escape. Although the rumblings from around social media are floating around the rumour that Toto Wolff might be demanding to instigate a driver swap with him and Kimi Antonelli just two days into the off-season. Make of that what you will. No, instead, Carlos is not going to be lamenting the fact that he's not going to be getting podiums for a while and instead is going to give an attempt at making sure that this team is back near the top a damn good go. And to prove many doubters wrong and try and emulate what Lewis Hamilton did to Mercedes and what he might want to try and do again with Ferrari. If you looked at the testing times and just the names on the board, you would be mistaken that Carlos hadn't left the Scuderia at all and that he was just a smidge behind Charles as he has been all season. Not so. In fact, he was leading for times during the day when he clocked up 140 to the collapse in the FW46, taking no breaks supposedly, not even for lunch. And one thing I did not know is that going over to Williams, he took along his personal trainer known as Gigi with him from Ferrari. And that is a huge deal to get a very passionate Italian man to leave the Scuderia of his own free will just for the sake he has a good relationship with that driver. And I am really pleased that so far Williams has not asked him to remove that fabulous moustache from underneath his nostrils. That is a monumental sign of commitment from Williams to make sure that whatever Carlos wants, Carlos gets. Now, don't worry. This is not going to be a video harping on about how Williams are so back and are so lucky to have Carlos that he's amazing and perfect and can do no wrong. Let's be real. Williams are not going to be suddenly transforming into a front running team next year. It's still going to be a relatively dry season for them when it comes to results, because we all have to remember that James Vowell's ultimate grandmaster plan is to try and emulate what his mentor Ross Braun did with Honda, then becoming Braun GP and then Mercedes to maybe sacrifice a year or two for the sake of having a much better year further down the line. You've just got to make some sort of compromises in order to make a sustained period of relative success all the longer lasting. Because I recall that James said at the beginning of the season that he didn't really care if Williams finished in ninth or eighth or seventh. Well, funnily enough, they did finish ninth. That car kept suffering crashes and that ultimately led to development time for next year's car being compromised. Just that means they have parts for this year. Seriously, it was one of the worst years I think I've ever seen for any team. As a result, we're probably not going to be seeing Carlos break through into Q3 on the regular and instead probably be eliminated in Q2 more often than not. It's going to be a burner season for that team because Albon, Colapinto, Sargent, they burnt through over 10 times what McLaren burnt through in terms of destructors points. And as Valls pointed out, that is not normal nor sustainable. It's going to have some sort of effect to the development of the FW47 simply because they have to divert resources and energy into simply having enough parts to go racing. Because as we saw in Abu Dhabi and Qatar and to some extent Las Vegas, they were having to borrow parts from other Mercedes-powered teams and they only had one nose cone to share between both drivers for the final two races. If they had a prang on both cars, they might not have been able to go racing or they would have had to have done some bodge job with some duct tape. If they don't increase the pace of the car, at least make it more drivable that the drivers don't have to wrangle its scruff of the neck to make sure it can't even do anything without crashing it. But one thing was made perfectly clear though that Williams does have another mission going on behind the scenes and they were trying to make some state of intent here with Carlos having some time before the enforced December shutdown so that means he can get some things under his belt and also, most critically, as I will touch upon later on, Carlos can bring all of the stuff that he knows Ferrari fresh out of his brain towards the people from Oxfordshire. But to say that Williams are actually genuinely fast with Carlos in there, I don't think that's fully true. They were doing glory rungs amongst other programs to show the world that the partnership was genuine and that right out of the gate it was going to be a fruitful and focused effort and the times reflected that. There's nothing else that we can glean from these results, although admittedly, Browning being only 7 tenths behind Carlos was pretty curious. And don't just take my word for it, Carlos has a clear mission as to what he wants to do with this partnership going forward that, okay, he's not really talked much since leaving Ferrari about what he hopes to achieve with Williams, aside from looking really good in silver and blue with that helmet. My goodness, that blue-tinted visor looked really, really fresh. But he did tell the likes of Days in Spain that his expectations are healthily managed, as he says right here. Ahem. It may seem strange to people, but it's a project that motivates me a lot. It's in my mind to be able to help a legendary team like Williams and F1 to become a top team again. Being part of that motivates me a lot. I know I won't be fighting for wins and podiums but I'm not worried about that. I've got that, I've done that with Ferrari, and what I'm going to take care of is that this time last as little as possible for the team I'm going to and to make the most of it. I think the way to face a year like this is never ideal. All the great years of the best sportsmen in history come with a 100% team, a project for the future, and everyone pushing in the same direction. Now I can hear a lot of naysayers saying, oh he's only saying that because he didn't get a gig with Red Bull or Mercedes, oh come on. And you would be right to think that people didn't necessarily look at the full optimism Carlos was displaying, instead they focused on the part where Sainz said he wasn't expecting to be getting wins or podiums for a few years, presuming that this was maybe some kind of condemnation or lamentation that his best days were behind him. Now I would disagree with that sentiment and agree with Carlos that what he hopes to achieve with Williams is pragmatic and realistic. It's not like he's arriving and going, yeah we are so back, we are going to win the constructors next year and I'm going to win multiple podiums and take the title from Norris and Verstappen, yeah it's going to be great, and then when they don't deliver they're going to look like fools. Because I still can't forget what Ken Tyrrell said in their final year of competing as Tyrrell that they were expecting podiums. Really? With Riccardo Rosset? Yes, Carlos lost out when it came to seeking a seat with the likes of Mercedes or Red Bull, but since then it's become evident that for those two teams there was never really a chance for Carlos to get in the door properly, there were other factors at play that would have made it impossible to shift their perspective. For starters, I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that the purpose of Toto Wolff for this season was to ensure that Kimi Antonelli got into the W16 when Lewis Hamilton called time on their partnership, that he did not want to let through his fingers yet again a young talent that had a prodigious future and potential to be fantastic like he did with Max Verstappen, which is why the Mercedes junior team even exists. So no, he's going to be grabbing this opportunity for a potential young upstart with both hands, so anyone else? They're not going to get a look-in. Mick Schumacher didn't get a look-in, Albon himself didn't get a look-in even though he expressed interest. No, none of that, none of that at all. So it was quite clear, George's partner for next year was going to be Kimi, unless he had a Mardian F2, which actually he didn't, it was kind of reasonable considering that the Prema effort in 2024 was absolutely terrible. And as for Red Bull, well you already know from the many videos I've talked about, as well as everyone else online, that their current situation is in absolute turmoil. But simply put, this whole mess is something that Christian Horner has now started to regret, and it could cost him dearly if the team tries to find some sort of ending to proceedings with a hefty payout for Sergio Perez on the cards, or maybe if they keep him, lost results. Now don't get me wrong, Horner is still a successful team principal throughout his tenure at Red Bull, but even the best can make errors in judgment. I mean, just look at Toto, they're not perfect. And may I remind you, by Christian's own admission, the idea of giving Checo his contract extension early to help motivate him simply didn't work. According to reports in Marco, there were talks with Carlos earlier on in the year, but they were curtailed when Horner got involved in proceedings, so we were supposedly denied a return to the Red Bull family for the guy who started off with Max Verstappen back at Toro Rosso. I'm glad that Carlos has found solace at Williams and is motivated to do well with them, and to bring Williams some sort of glory once more in the fullness of time. But you've got to admit, Verstappen and Sainz at Red Bull, a decade on from when they were rookies, they would have learned a lot in their time together and apart, and I'm sure that those two would not have been fighting quite as intensely as their fathers were back in the day in the mid-2010s, because that was pretty fierce. And considering where the RB20 is and where the RB21 probably will be next year, having those two strong drivers together would most likely help ensure the team would remain in contention for the Constructor's title longer than they would be otherwise. But we didn't get that, and Williams have gotten themselves a truly impressive driver, and both the team and Sainz himself are driven to highlight that fact, and that the collaboration will yield success. Because this is not just a letter of intent from Carlos or Williams, you've got to look at the fact that a major sponsor has left Ferrari, and this is quite a lucrative one, and has now signed up with Williams. They've not just left motorsport altogether or gone somewhere else to another sport, no. The deal that Ferrari and Santander had was not a small one. It was, as Black Book Motorsports estimates it to be, $60 million a year, and it spread across not just the F1 team, but supposedly their World Endurance Championship team as well. But even if that figure were a half or a third of that, to Williams, this would be incredibly important. Because now that I think about it, Williams has actually accrued an impressive contingent of sponsors on long-term deals that believe in the project. You've got Golf, of course, that was a really big coup. They got Komatsu back after their time in the 90s, their biggest ever single dealing yet, maybe before Santander. And then there's Eurocell. That partnership between those two entities has been absolutely remarkable. So now you've got Santander there. These are major global brands, and that's really good going, and this is probably going to improve their sponsorship kitty all the more. And I hate to be rubbing salt into the wound of Christian, but I'm pretty sure that Santander would have given you a similar amount to what they gave Ferrari if you took on Carlos Sainz. So I think he would have more than enough plugged the gap left by Checo. So, from a financial point of view, it would have made sense to actually have Carlos. So, uh, oops. Now, what was also evident from just before the test beginning and during it is that Carlos has been branded a workaholic, that he will not rest so that he may understand the car in its entirety. Now, back when he was at McLaren, when I noticed what he was producing for that team and providing them in terms of hope for the future, this mentality made sense because the team were forever forward. They were heading towards somewhere where they can actually sustain their success for the long term where they are now. It's fantastic, and I think Williams will benefit from that just as effectively, if not more so, with his experience from the Scuderia. But I've also noticed that during his time with Ferrari, that mindset has not always worked as intended with Ferrari because there is a way of doing things, and many drivers who had that similar mindset, like Niki Lauda, for example, have been told, you can't say that. That's going against what Ferrari stands for. You work for Ferrari. Ferrari does not work for you. And I saw this post on social media, and it perfectly sums up the sentiment and the issue that science might have had ingratiating in itself fully amongst the Tifosi. But sure, he was a driver for Ferrari, but he failed to truly become a Ferrari driver like Charles Leclerc. There is a difference here. It's not just semantics, because Charles is practically the embodiment of a Ferrari driver, and he was moulded to be one in some shape or form from birth, pretty much. Now, this isn't to cite against Carlos Sainz in saying he was never destined to do well at Ferrari. Of course he did. He got multiple wins with them. He managed to pull off some amazing strategic marvels to get them far better than they would have been had he just simply towed the line. But it would have led to some friction, understandably so. And we did see moments where people were complaining that Carlos was not playing ball. He was going against Charles, and many Tifosi members would just say, he's not a true Ferrari driver. He's just out for himself. Well, I think this might easily explain the situation, that he worked for Ferrari, but he wasn't fully Ferrari coded, because simply he wasn't subscribing to Ferrari's program. So maybe you should instead subscribe to my channel if you like what I've got to say on the subject of Carlos. We are so close to 100k, and it would mean the world to me, and what content I can provide you if we get to that goal before the end of the year. So whilst I do intend to give you props for actually doing so and subscribing, I've got to give even more props for the person who posted this masterpiece. It's perfect. Because whilst Ferrari did benefit from this attitude to some extent with Carlos playing his part in Ferrari's mission to get back to the top of the tables in F1 since the lows of 2020, narrowly missing out on silverware to boot, Williams would almost certainly be completely receptive to whatever science has to say and to offer, maybe as much to a fault, because I believe they will be bending over backwards to accommodate what Carlos has to say about the car. Because there have been many photos that have shown Carlos getting so particular and nitpicky when it comes to feedback, they practically took the car apart and then put it back together again, knowing that they were limited in regards to time, and they still were able to pump out Nyon 250 laps combined with Browning. He did not stop for lunch, like I said. He was spotted getting stuck in with the crew, dipping into where his seat was, and it was absolutely ridiculous. Removing all of these bits of the car, trying to possibly troubleshoot things, or make some sort of modification on the fly, bodging things, he was able to have this time with the team to offer this kind of feedback, and for people to get to know him as a driver and a person who could provide them those extra tenths or two. And this was vitally important if Carlos wanted to get off to a good start with this team, and that Williams might have some prospects of doing slightly better next year, although their eyes are on the 2026 prize, because Carlos pointed out to the likes of The Racer publication that even though he was trying to give his outgoing team the best possible shot at maybe snatching the Constructor's title from McLaren, especially after Piastri's scuffle with Verstappen, according to him, he was also starting to feel things in the car, and trying to say, remember how this feels, which he could then feed back to his new team, make some adjustments that will be taken into consideration for the winter, and next year's car, whilst they are fresh in his mind. Now, immediately, I can see people on the other side of the fence thinking, what? Carlos said that? How dare he? That traitorous sneak! How dare he take away secrets and characteristics of the Ferrari? That is surely illegal and immoral, and he should be penalised and punished by Ferrari! How dare he? Well, I hate to burst your bubble, my friend, but you are wrong in that regard, because there is nothing wrong in remembering things about what things feel like, because it's all subjective, because what Carlos would interpret from that car would be completely different to anyone else experiencing the same machinery. If Carlos took within physical notes and schematics of the Ferrari machine to Williams, then I don't think Williams would accept them, for a start, but then that would be illegal and immoral, so you would be right in that regard, but no, memories? You can't police memories, at least not yet. I don't know what Mohamed Bin Saliem is going to be doing in the future. Now, allow me to get back to those times for a second there from this test. Sure, you can't read into how Carlos compares to other teams, but if they were going for low fuel runs with stickier tyres, perhaps, maybe the C5s, what you can do more clearly and easily and more relatably is see where Carlos stacks up with his colleagues, Albon and Colopinto, but you've also got to remember that the stakes during the Abu Dhabi qualifying session would have been much greater, because there's a race to be had, points could be had, and considering the attrition rate of this team, then I think that Alex and Franco would have been a little bit more cautious that they didn't overdrive the car and then crash it and then lose potential, you know, track time, whereas Carlos, I think, would have been permitted to get a little bit bolder, try out some things, get to know the car 100%, because otherwise, how would he be expected to know the full gamut of what this machine is capable of, as well as be able to impart all the stuff he's learned from Ferrari? He had to be giving it his all, but nevertheless, all of this is still quite representative. In just his first full run with the team, Carlos ended up being two tenths faster than his 2025 teammate, and nigh on three tenths faster than the Argentinian that he's replacing. That time of 1.23.6 in the test would have been enough to get the car in Abu Dhabi qualifying into Q2, albeit barely, and then qualify a hypothetical 13th. Yes, okay, there are different circumstances, the temperatures and times of day, you've got to take that into consideration, but it is still something that might give you some food for thought over the winter, that, yeah, it's not exactly electric or anything, it's not in comparison of Albon crashing out of Q1, Carlos goes and puts it into Q3 easily and gets him within the first three rows or anything, no. It's small gains, but there are gains nonetheless, and this is only just the start. I'm expecting what Niki Lauda was able to provide when he first joined Ferrari 50 years ago, to give the team some sort of focus. Granted, I'm not expecting sides to emulate Lauda and go on to win the title the following year, or get multiple victories, but Williams can still achieve a fair bit in terms of progress by allowing Carlos to fully exploit his technical acumen and relentless work ethic, as was evident from this test on Tuesday. He could work closely with the crew, James can see him in his element, and then go from there, and I still love that picture, I can't quite source it, if I can, I will put it on screen, of Carlos just carrying on the captions saying, let's go for three more laps, and then there's a mechanic in the background, just go, oh god, I've lost, oh my god, argh! Hopefully, Carlos can impart all the stuff that he's learned from his four years with Ferrari, and maybe help streamline the development path and try and get out all of the bugs and quirks that Williams are now trying to eschew themselves, it will hopefully accelerate the process. Yeah, as well as getting rid of the general sense of aimlessness that Williams have had for the longest time. Now, they have a clear goal. Don't get me wrong, Albon has done wonders in providing the team some hope since he joined in 2022, to get the team away from the back of the grid completely exclusively, but it is evident that he was equally struggling with the task, as his crashes this year have illustrated. Remember, Albon is also responsible for the team's financial burden, it wasn't just Logan and Franco's fault. Now, I would like to think that Alex and Carlos in the last few months have been trying to reconnect since their Red Bull Junior days, and really try and get off on the right foot for the betterment of the team that they are being employed by. But, as many people have said, your first and biggest rival is going to be your teammate. Carlos will have a lot to prove going forward, and he will want to prove that he can be a better team leader than Alex Albon ever can, and what this test has shown, that maybe Alex has had it quite easy in the time since he joined the Grove team. You know, Latifi, Sargent, Colapinto toward the end of his tenure, because, yeah, you gotta admit, Franco did give Alex a big scare for those first few races, but then confidence started to come into play, progress, the hope of more and more points, and then of course all of the crashes, loss of brand new parts, having to go to old spec parts, it made the task all the harder, and then the burden, and the guilt, and the remorse of having all these crashes under your belt, the thing that you tried to avoid, and what your predecessor did, and in the eyes of Albon, it thankfully gave him some stay of execution, and he managed to dodge that particular storm, even though, admittedly, Franco did out-qualify him a couple of times, where Sargent never did. But the fact is, is that Carlos has come in right away, and bested his Q1 lap time from just a couple of days ago, having just arrived. That is going to be yet another wake-up call going into winter, and this is great news for Williams, who are seeking to begin a new chapter of their history, ideally with a Spaniard for many years. It does, to me, mark the ending of the Albon arc, and now it will be a question of whether the Thai driver can rise to the occasion and drive better than ever, or completely collapse under the pressure, and it would be the end of his time in F1 for good, opening the door, again, for the likes of Franco Colapinto. To find out why I think his F1 story is not over, despite his tenure ending in not the best circumstances, watch this video next, straight after this one.