‘My priority is to make this project work’ – Sainz asserts his commitment to Williams for future seasons

Carlos Sainz has declared that he is determined to continue racing at Williams and help the team fulfil their ambition of competing for championships in the next four years.

After a stint at Ferrari saw him secure four Grand Prix victories between 2022 and 2024, the Spaniard moved to Williams to partner Alex Albon while his seat at the Scuderia was taken by seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton.

While the Grove-based outfit are yet to return to their winning ways of past decades, Sainz has consistently maintained that the long-term project is what attracted him to the team in the first place, and he remains confident in their chances despite some early obstacles.

Quizzed on Team Principal James Vowles’ recent comments that he has “zero doubt” about wanting to keep his current driver line-up, Sainz said: “Obviously very happy to hear from James.

“I think we've made it mutual across one another that the ideal scenario and the ideal path moving forward for me has always been Williams and has always been seeing the progress of this team and continuing to help this team become a competitive team.

“That's what I would love the most and very happy to see that my boss still wants me.”

Shaking off seven seasons of placing at the bottom end of the Teams’ Championship, Williams enjoyed a significant improvement in Sainz’s first campaign, with the 31-year-old impressing by finishing on the podium in Baku and Qatar.

They ended 2025 in a strong fifth place with 137 points, leaving them in a great spot on the eve of the new regulations, but delays to what was ultimately an overweight 2026 challenger have contributed to a slower start to the year than they expected.

Now that shifts in the driver market are gradually picking up, with Charles Leclerc extending his contract with Ferrari, questions have begun to crop up around whether Sainz will stick with Williams and continue to chase down their aim of winning titles in 2030.

“I know I obviously need to take a decision this year about my future but at the same time, I made it very clear to Williams and to my management team that my priority is to make this project work,” he said ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix. “When I did the commitment a couple of years ago to come here, it was with the commitment of trying to make this work and I wish we can do that.

“Obviously this year we've hit a bit of a big bump that we didn't expect and now all my attention and focus is to try and get this team out of the bump as soon as possible.

“I think we were maybe looking [at] about 2029 podiums consistently, and the 2030 the win. I knew there was not going to be any winning in Williams until at least '28, '29, '30. It is true that we've just been through a pretty big bump in the road to recovery.

“I'm committed to try and help the team get out of this bump and do the best we can to recover. I just want to be winning in F1, that's my main message to my management and at the same time help Williams get back to the top.”