{"id":75423,"date":"2025-08-17T16:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T16:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/75423\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T16:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T16:27:08","slug":"how-carlos-sainz-has-already-made-a-big-impact-at-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/75423\/","title":{"rendered":"How Carlos Sainz has already made a ‘big impact’ at Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams<\/a> Sporting Director Sven Smeets has praised the \u201cbig impact\u201d Carlos Sainz has made at the team since joining from Formula 1<\/a> rivals Ferrari over the winter.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard was ousted by the Scuderia after it decided to replace him with Lewis Hamilton for this season, which was announced before the start of the last.<\/p>\n

After a great deal of speculation as to where the 30-year-old would find himself next, the Grove-based squad convinced him to take a chance on its project to return to the top.<\/p>\n

It has been, on the face of it, a difficult debut campaign for Sainz, scoring just 16 points so far, 38 less than team-mate Alex Albon.<\/p>\n

But Smeets conveyed the unseen influence that Sainz has brought to the team, saying his years at a team like Ferrari are giving Williams an added ingredient.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarlos is a fantastic person to work with,\u201d he told Motorsport.com. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s made a big impact across the board \u2013 not just on the car and technical side, but also in how the race team operates and how we\u2019re preparing for 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHis experience at multiple teams and in race-winning machinery has brought us something we were probably still missing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sainz recently discussed the \u201cphilosophy change\u201d he feels Williams needs to return to being title challengers again.<\/p>\n

It has been undeniably a learning curve for him to adapt to the inner workings of the team, and Smeets said that those adjustments are being made.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs he mentioned himself, he had to get used to the philosophy of our car,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big difference between our car and the Ferrari. But that\u2019s going better and better now. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s working really well with\u00a0Alex Albon. We\u2019re very happy, and I\u2019m expecting a strong second half of the season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Albon had previously driven alongside Logan Sargeant and Nicholas Latifi, who, with the greatest of respect, lacked the skill and racecraft that Sainz possesses.<\/p>\n

Smeets intimated that a more even balance in ability between the two men has given Williams a chance to showcase more equilibrium in how personnel work towards their demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth sides of the garage are now working at the same level \u2013 and more importantly, they\u2019re working closely together,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to divide the workload better during FP1 and FP2, and combine the knowledge gained to decide what\u2019s the best way forward for the rest of the weekend. That\u2019s hugely valuable to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CarlosCarlos Sainz and Alex Albon are proving to push Williams in the right direction<\/p>\n

Albon and Sainz \u2018pushing Williams hard\u2019<\/p>\n

Smeets added that both Sainz and Albon are asking a lot of the team, but on the same page, which is enabling the team to meet its goals that little bit more simply.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn track, they\u2019re competitors,\u201d he said, \u201cbut in the garage it\u2019s all about teamwork \u2013 pushing the team forward, improving the car and supporting the factory with its development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have two drivers pushing the team hard, and they\u2019re doing so in the same direction, which makes things a bit easier.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The evenness between both drivers even comes down to how they set the FW47 up in a similar fashion, with Smeets saying their set-ups \u201caren\u2019t far apart, that\u2019s usually a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they go in different directions, it might indicate something\u2019s not quite right,\u201d he elaborated.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the first six months, he\u2019s pointed out a lot of things we could do differently or better. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome are things we can only implement next year, but many short-term gains we\u2019ve already adopted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

These can be even small things, such as, according to Smeets: \u201cPreparing the tyres behind the garage \u2013 how you warm them and how you stack them. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of Carlos\u2019 previous teams did that slightly differently in wet conditions. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about small details, but they can gain you milliseconds. And when that adds up, it becomes a tenth. That\u2019s when it starts to matter.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is not just the expertise on and off the track that Sainz is bringing. It is also the clout and popularity he brings which is quite literally paying dividends.<\/p>\n

\"CarlosCarlos Sainz is also a big draw for fans, helping Williams in other ways<\/p>\n

The Sainz factor enables Williams to reap financial rewards<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a demo\u00a0run with Carlos in Madrid,\u201d Smeets recalls. \u201cThey expected 5,000 to 7,000 fans, but 25,000 showed up. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt ended up being one of our best merchandise sales days ever,\u201d Smeets said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started, they attracted around 500 to 1,000 fans,\u201d Smeets said of fan events at Grands Prix. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you look at the numbers we drew this year in Australia, Miami, Barcelona and London, those are now serious events in their own right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smeets concluded that Williams, as a result, is now receiving even more interest from young drivers in relation to its academy programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis arrival underlines how seriously we\u2019re looking at the future, and that helps massively in our conversations with young drivers and their management teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re now getting far more enquiries than before,\u201d said Smeets, before adding that Williams remains selective for the programme. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to keep our focus on a handful of talents \u2013 ideally one per category. But Carlos has given a major boost to the entire project.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Carlos Sainz laments backlash towards Lando Norris\u2019 openness on mental health<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams Sporting Director Sven Smeets has praised the \u201cbig impact\u201d Carlos Sainz has made at the team since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,47054,58182,85,819],"class_list":{"0":"post-75423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sainz","14":"tag-smeets","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-williams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}