By snagging third in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz secured a podium with Williams before Lewis Hamilton — who took over his seat at Ferrari — could accomplish the same feat with his newest squad.

For as compelling a stat as it is, though, Sainz argues that he’s not interested in being compared to Hamilton; he’s just trying to run his own race.

Carlos Sainz uninterested in Lewis Hamilton comparison

Carlos Sainz’s landmark front-row start with Williams at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix had many wondering if a strong performance was possible in the race, or if Sainz had simply gotten lucky in an unpredictable qualifying session.

The narrow nature of the Baku City Circuit was made all the more challenging when gusty winds and rain descended on qualifying, sending six different drivers into the wall for as many red flags.

In Q3, Sainz was one of three drivers to get a time on the board in between two red-flag periods — the quickest of the bunch. When the session resumed, and after a light rain shower, only Max Verstappen was able to usurp the Spaniard’s time.

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But qualifying is not race pace, and Sainz’s true test was to come on Sunday afternoon. Yet, despite the fact that multiple top-tier cars had qualified behind him, he was able to hold onto third come the chequered flag, giving Williams its first podium in a full-length grand prix since the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

It was a triumph for Sainz, and his team.

“I always said to the team from the beginning that whenever a first big opportunity of fighting for a podium comes, as long as we have everything under control and nothing goes wrong and we prove to everyone what we’re doing, and we get that podium, then I’ll be OK.

“And it’s exactly what ended up happening today. We had our chance starting from P2.

“Probably, if you asked many of us yesterday, we didn’t believe the podium was actually achievable with so many fast cars behind. But I think we’ve had good pace this year, we just didn’t have many opportunities to show it. Today we had a very good opportunity to show our very good pace, and we managed to stay on the podium.”

The Baku podium, Sainz admitted, tasted sweeter than those he achieved at earlier points in his career, when he was racing for more competitive, front-running teams.

But he’s not looking to compare himself to any other drivers — particularly not to the man who replaced him at Ferrari.

When Lewis Hamilton was announced to be the newest Prancing Horse driver, Sainz knew that it was his seat the seven-time World Champion would take. It was one of the most-hyped driver changes in F1 history.

Thus far, though, the season has been a tough one. Hamilton’s best performances have come in sprint races, and he remains without a podium in grands prix in F1 2025.

“What everyone else does is not my business, to be honest,” Sainz said of the comparison between his fortunes and those of Hamilton.

“What I care about is that the first opportunity that I had to score a podium with Williams, and the first opportunity Williams had to score a podium, we took it, we scored it, and there it is.”

He also pointed out that, “I think out of everyone that’s changed teams — which is not an easy task nowadays — I’ve been very competitive from the first race, very quick, but I didn’t have results with me. I didn’t have results to prove to myself, the team, and everyone that some good things were about to come.

“But, in the end, they did. I think life has taught me many times that this sometimes happens — that you have a run of misfortune or bad performances, but then suddenly life gives you back if you keep working hard with something really sweet like this.”

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