Spanish Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz, now with Ferrari, will race for Williams Racing from 2025, a British team with which he has signed a new contract for the next two years, with the option to extend it, putting an end to the rumours of recent weeks about his immediate future.
“Williams Racing has announced that Carlos Sainz will complete the team’s driver line-up for the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship season and beyond,” the British team said in a statement posted on its website.
The 29-year-old from Madrid has signed a new two-year contract with Williams, from Ferrari, with the option to extend his link with the British team. After the Italian team announced Lewis Hamilton, seven-time world champion, as Charles Leclerc’s teammate from 2025, Sainz was forced to look for a new ‘home’ on the grid.
And after being linked with Mercedes or Red Bull, the Spaniard chooses the Williams project to continue his career in the ‘Big Circus’, after 23 podiums and more than 1,100 points. In addition, in 2023 he was the only driver to break Red Bull’s hegemony, and he also won in Australia this year, just ten days after having appendicitis surgery.
Sainz will race alongside Thailand’s Alex Albon in 2025 and 2026, when Formula 1 regulations change. “I am very pleased to announce that I will be joining Williams Racing from 2025. It is no secret that this year’s driver market has been exceptionally complex for a number of reasons and it has taken me some time to announce my decision,” said the Spaniard.
“However, I am fully confident that Williams is the right place for me to continue my journey in F1 and I am extremely proud to join such a historic and successful team, where many of my childhood heroes drove in the past and left their mark on our sport,” he explained, before defending that “the ultimate goal” is to “return Williams to its rightful place, at the front of the grid”, a “challenge” that he accepts “with enthusiasm and positivity”.
The Madrid native said he was “convinced that this team has all the ingredients necessary to make history again.” “From January 1, I will give my best to lead Williams forward. I would like to thank James Vowles and the entire Williams Board for their trust and determination. Their solid leadership and convictions have played an important role in my decision-making,” he said.
“I truly believe that the core of every successful team lies in its people and its culture. Williams is synonymous with heritage and pure racing, the foundations of the project we have ahead of us are very solid and I am looking forward to being part of it from next year,” he concluded in statements published by the team.
This signing leaves no room for American Logan Sargeant, whom Williams wanted to thank for his “hard work and dedication over the last two years”. He became the first American driver to score points in 30 years and “has played a fundamental role in the development of the team”.
For Williams, the addition of Sainz is “a strong statement of intent from both parties” by signing “one of the most talented drivers on the grid, with a race-winning pedigree. Carlos not only brings experience and performance, but also a fierce motivation to extract every millisecond from the team and the car,” the statement concluded.
