Sainz Begins a New Chapter with Williams Racing
Just a few hours after getting a podium in his last Fomrlua 1 race with Ferrari, Carlos Sainz drove a Williams car for the first time during an official post-season test on Monday and Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.
Sainz, who has been one of the best F1 drivers during the last years, is set to face a new chapter with Williams Racing after losing his seat in Ferrari due to the arrival of one of the best F1 drivers of all time, Lewis Hamilton, to Maranello.
Williams will be the fifth Formula 1 team for Carlos Sainz, after driving before at Toro Rosso, Renault, McLaren and Ferrari.
According to international F1 news, Sainz drove 7 laps in his new Formula 1 car on Monday, with a best time of 1:26.484s. Today, he drove 60 laps and got a better time of 1:24.435.
This was below his F1 qualifying results during his last weekend with Ferrari, where he ended in P3 with a 1:22.824 flier.
Sainz recognized that he was already thinking about his test with Williams during his last laps of the Abu Dhabi GP last Sunday, saying that he wanted to remember how the Ferrari car feels, why it is quick and how he could help Williams to improve.
“I’m not going to lie, my last laps, as much as I was pushing like hell for this team (Ferrari) and trying to, I was already starting to feel things in the car and trying to say, ‘remember how this feels’,” said Sainz after the race.
His Williams car already had the 55 number of the Spaniard during this test, while he also wore a helmet with the 55 too.
There were other drivers testing too, like Yuki Tsunoda, who got a chance to drive the RB20. This was the first time the Japanese driver got the opportunity to drive a car of the main Red Bull team.
The first race of the F1 2025 schedule will be on March 16th in Australia.