EXCLUSIVE: Carlos Sainz ‘not missing’ winning as he chases Williams milestone

Carlos Sainz is dreaming of achieving his first “milestone” F1 result with Williams, and it could come sooner than he originally anticipated.

The Spaniard is enjoying a strong start to life at Williams who have emerged from the winter as frontrunners of the tight midfield pack in 2025.

Williams currently sit fifth in the constructors’ championship after seven races having accumulated 51 points, marking their best start to a season in nearly a decade.

When Sainz joined Williams having been forced to make way for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, the four-time grand prix winner acknowledged there was a possibility he may not stand on the top step of the podium again.

The 30-year-old Spaniard was certainly aware it would be a long journey for Williams to get back to the front of the grid, but the team have made a much better start to 2025 than anticipated.

Asked if he is more confident now that he could win again in F1, Sainz told Crash.net at the Monaco Grand Prix: “It’s a good question.

“The win hasn’t really crossed my mind so much, it's been more the podium. That is my first milestone with the team that probably will not come until next year, or the year after, if we do things well.

“But the win, I still don’t miss it as much. I am enjoying a lot the process of the rebuild of the team, making the car quicker, the team better and I am enjoying that whole process of helping.

“I feel like the first milestone is a podium rather than a win. But if there is a win that ever presents itself, I will go for it.”

How close to the podium are Williams?

Williams have already made the decision to switch off wind tunnel development of their current car to fully focus on the looming rules shake-up coming to F1 in 2026.

Despite this, they are often leading the midfield and have recently been mixing it up with Ferrari in both qualifying and the races.

Sainz’s teammate Alex Albon finished fifth for the third time this year at last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, having run as high as fourth.

“I think in Imola we were not far [away from a podium],” Sainz said. “With the speed I had in qualifying, and executing a perfect race on Sunday, we wouldn’t have been far.

“If you see where Alex was - and I was in front of him before my first stop - he was fighting for a podium. So I think on a track like that, even the circumstances, we were not far.

“At the same time, we still need a bit of help from the others. I want to do a podium on merit, not with help from the others.”

Williams last achieved a podium finish during the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix with George Russell, though the rain-shortened race was completed entirely behind the Safety Car.

Has Carlos Sainz reset his Williams expectations?

Asked if Williams’ impressive start to 2025 has made Sainz rethink his expectations for the team, he replied: “I think I am in a moment where I first want to confirm my speed in qualifying and the race.

“I still need to do half a step to feel I am extracting the absolute maximum out of the car every weekend, and then we can consider.

“But I still feel like I need to get myself a bit more time to understand that and to interact a bit better with those race situations to reconsider my expectations.

“But I am not going to lie, the last few weekends have given me hope and a huge boost in my motivation that hopefully sooner rather than later we can be fighting for bigger things.”