The 29 year old Spaniard has signed a multi-year contract to drive with Williams until at least 2026
Finlay McSporran
Published: 17:01, 29th July 2024
This comes after months of waiting for a possible seat at Redbull or Mercedes
This all began back in February when Ferrari announced that it had signed Lewis Hamilton for the 2025 season, with Sainz leaving the team to make way for the 7 time world champion. This left Sainz in a tricky situation as he was now out of a dream drive at Ferrari despite putting in some impressive performances for the team over the past few years. The only positive at the time for Sainz is that he was being replaced by one of the greatest drivers in the history of Formula one, showing how tough it is to replace him.
But with a driver of Sainz’s talent now on the market, many teams were keen to sign him, however all of the top teams already had both seats filled locked down with the vacant Mercedes seat likely going to F2 driver Kimi Antionelli. This left Sainz to chose between the backmarker teams of Sauber, Alpine and Williams.
In a post on social media, Sainz explained that “Williams is the right place for me to continue my F1 journey and I am extremely proud of joining such a historic and successful team”.
“I want to thank James Vowles and the entire Board of Williams for their trust and determination. Their solid leadership and convictions have played an important role in my decision-making.
Team Boss James Vowels said “Carlos has demonstrated time and again that he is one of the most talented drivers on the grid, with race-winning pedigree, and this underlines the upwards trajectory we are on”.
“Carlos brings not just experience and performance, but also a fierce drive to extract every millisecond out of the team and car; the fit is perfect”.
With Sainz and Albon now confirmed as Williams 2025 line-up, it means that sadly, yet unsurprisingly Logan Sargeant will leave the team at the end of the season, with James Vowels saying the following, “I also want to thank Logan for everything he has done for the team and know he will continue to fight hard for us in the races ahead.”
With Sainz now off the market, it leaves Sauber and Alpine to decide what to do with their vacant seats. Alpine reserve driver Jack Doohan will likely be announced as their second driver for 2025 in the next few days, however the second seat at Sauber/Audi is far more open, with names such as Bottas, Pourchaire and even Redbull’s Liam Lawson being thrown around.
There is also still that vacant seat at VCARB which will likely be taken by Lawson if Riccardo replaces Perez at Redbull mid-season, meaning that there could be potentially 4 rookies on the grid next year!
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