Sainz rues "things out of your control in a row"

After an up-and-down start to his Williams career, four-time F1 race winner Carlos Sainz has been left to rue "things out of your control in a row," having struggled to extract everything from his car due to raft of different issues.

Replaced by Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz joined Williams from 2025 onwards on a two-year deal, partnered by Alexander Albon.

Despite an impressive performance during the three-day Bahrain pre-season testing and on the opening day of the season-starting Australian Grand Prix, Sainz endured a difficult first outing with Williams, having crashed out on the first lap of the rain-affected Melbourne race.

In China, Sainz finished seventeenth in the sprint and tenth in the main race after disqualifications for Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, and Pierre Gasly.

The Madrid-born driver then went on to finish outside of the points at the Japanese Grand Prix. Starting eighth in Bahrain, Sainz engaged himself in close battles with Yuki Tsunoda and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, but he sustained race-ending sidepod damage with the former and received a penalty for forcing the latter off-track.

He returned with a season-best performance at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, qualifying sixth and finishing eighth. Since then, the Spaniard has repeated his eighth-placed finish in Imola, but he finishes outside the points on two occasions at his home race in Barcelona and most recently in Silverstone.

Speaking of the unexpected challenges in his first season with Williams, Sainz has been left to rue his results after the first half of the 2025 F1 season.

“Honestly, it's so frustrating to have so many of these issues or things out of your control in a row. For me, a 12 is like retiring. In the position we are, it feels like a retirement, especially because we were running P7, P8, we had done everything right.

“[In] the race you take your risks, you do everything right, the strategy calls, and then something like this out of your control happens and you're out.”

Explaining his frustration and feelings amid a lack of impressive results despite encouraging performance and hard work behind the scenes, Sainz was at a loss for words.

“I cannot explain to you how you feel as an athlete when you keep going to a simulator, doing all your marketing events, putting a happy face, doing all your free practice, doing everything you can to score a good result [and still come out empty handed].”