Spanish driver Carlos Sainz, currently a member of Williams in Formula 1, summed up his debut season with the British team as "a good, if not perfect, first year", highlighting achievements such as a main podium, another in sprint and fifth place in the World Constructors' Championship, just tenths of a second behind the leading teams on several tracks.
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In a press conference prior to the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix, the Madrid native expressed his satisfaction with the results obtained, including a podium finish and a fifth place in the Constructors' World Championship for Williams.
"Honestly, if you had told me when I signed my contract with Williams in the summer of 2024 that we were going to have a podium, 5th in the Constructors' Championship, be a couple of tenths behind the top teams on many tracks, another podium in a sprint, a lot of points, both for Alex and for me, I would have signed even faster," Sainz confessed.
Criticism of the FIA: Confusion in Incident Assessment
The director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) used his speech to address a hot topic in the paddock: the inconsistency and "confusion" in the application of the penalty guidelines by the FIA stewards.
Sainz lamented the "division of opinions" between drivers, the FIA, and stewards, suggesting that the current guidelines have created more problems than solutions by forcing overly "black and white" judgments. "I think there has been a lot of confusion this year (between drivers and stewards). We need to sit down and analyze them calmly, outside of the heat of the moment," the driver urged. "The way we judge incidents, I think, has been very black and white."
Expectations in Qatar and the Future of the Stops
Regarding the race in Qatar, Sainz was cautious, anticipating a "complicated" weekend for Williams due to the car's weakness in the high-speed corners (150 to 200 km/h) that characterize the circuit. However, he sees it as a "good opportunity" to understand and correct this limitation.
Finally, he also criticized the limit of 25 laps to stop He described the change as "temporary" and detrimental to strategy, as it imposes two pit stops and reduces flexibility. "The future solution for Formula 1 is to have a greater variety of strategies," he concluded.
