Carlos Sainz ended speculation over his future by announcing he will move to Williams from next season onwards despite talk of a chance at Mercedes. The Spaniard had been informed pre-season that he was being replaced at Ferrari by seven times champion Lewis Hamilton next year.

Hopes of a seat at Red Bull faded away when Red Bull announced the day after the Belgium Grand Prix that Perez would not be replaced and the news of Carlos future at Williams interestingly broke around the same time.

Mercedes too had been a potential new home for Sainz as Toto Wolff admitted more than once he was interested in the Ferrari driver. Yet clearly that door also closed leaving Sainz the options of Sauber/Audi, Alpine and Williams.

 

 

 

Multi-year deal ‘the clincher’

The third oldest F1 team on the grid is undergoing a transformation as owners Dorilton have invested “hundreds of millions” according to team boss James Vowles to modernise the ageing facilities at their Grove HQ. And no longer are Williams to be a team which bloods Mercedes’ academy drivers as they did with George Russell.

Williams will be Sainz’s fifth F1 team and Lawrence Barretto tells the Pad-hoc podcast why he believes the Spaniard opted in the end for the Williams team. He claims it was the multi-year contract which was the clincher as Sainz has always enjoyed more than a one year commitment from the teams he has represented.

In the press release announcing Sainz decision, Williams confirmed he would be driving for the team in 2025 and 2026, yet it is highly likely there will be an option to extend for either party should the project be going well.

Barretto says: “I think a multi-year deal was probably the most important thing out of everything to do it because he’s really excelled in his career when he’s had that stability.

Mercedes top brass last ditch effort to lure Verstappen

 

 

 

Drivers set to leave F1

“That’s what he’s really needed to get the best out of him.”

With Oliver Bearman having being recruited as a rookie F1 driver for Haas next year, at least one of the current members of the grid will be leaving the sport. And that number will rise if Mercedes sign Kimi Antonelli and of course Liam Lawson has been promised a drive for Red Bull which again means another driver is out of top line motorsport.

Sainz is gambling on the 2026 big rule changes where the power units will be of a different specification and the cars see moveable aero parts re-introduced. As a customer of Mercedes, the gamble is they will deliver another power unit way ahead of the field, as happened last time around in 2014.

Even then, Williams must make he steps forward from their current place and given the FIA restrictions on R&D spending on the new powertrains, its far less certain Mercedes will this time be miles ahead of the other manufacturers.

Williams mid-season driver swap for Antonrlli

 

 

 

Jordan claims “exit clause” was tricky

Speaking following the Williams/Sainz announcement, Eddie Jordan believes the move is great news for Williams: “The biggest news of the last couple of days surely must be Carlos Sainz, the race-winning Spaniard, I mean he’s been fantastic at Ferrari and he will be joining Albon next year in Williams.

“This is a very strong statement by Williams to have secured his services for sure that’s a major coup but I’m sure it’s not without some little issues and I think that Carlos would have preferred to have been with the likes of McLaren, or a Red Bull or wherever, certainly Mercedes. 

Jordan who negotiated many driver contracts when team boss at the Silverstone based team also claims Sainz will have a release clause in his deal should a top team come a calling.

“I can absolutely be for sure knowing Carlos’s dad that there will be some form of release clause or there’ll be some sort of way that Carlos could get out if something really massive came in front of him.

“But at this moment in time, that’s not going to happen and we have to see how the season unfolds next year.”

Meltdown at Red Bull: Verstappen breaks silence

 

 

 

FW46 overweight

The 2024 Williams car is an upgrade on the FW45 but as yet it has failed to score as heavily as its predecessor. Williams believe the car is more ‘rounded’ but have had to sacrifice some of the lightening top speed which amazed Esteban Ocon last year when he repeatedly failed to overtake Alex Albon in Canada.

Vowles commented recently: “This year we are back in P9 but should we be there? Certainly not if the car reached the minimum weight,” the Williams boss told motorsport-total.com. “But that is our problem. Nobody else caused this. It is our fault because we have changed our technologies.”

Formula One’s recent minimum weight regulation came into sharp focus when at the Belgium Grand Prix George Russell was disqualified because his car was 1.5kg underweight. The 798kg minimum was breached due to a one stop strategy and the extra associated tyre. This together with weight loss from George himself saw the British driver relegated from first to last in the final round before the summer break.

RB boss hits back at Marko over Ricciardo

 

 

 

Drivers will extract the ‘maximum’

Much has been written about whether this weight advantage had given Russell a valuable advantage over his team mate, yet the conclusions appear to point to a less than two second time advantage over the entire course of the race.

So an overweight Williams car will not be just one or two kilograms too heavy effect the pace Williams believe they have with the FW46. Alpine suffered a similar problem at the start of this season but in recent rounds have looked more racey following upgrades in Monaco.

With Sainz and Albon set to drive the FW47 next year, the team no longer has to focus on sorting out Logan Sargeant and they know whatever car they give their driver pairing, will see them extract there most from it.

Mercedes detail changes bringing Hamilton turnaround in fortunes

 

 

 

Wolff now reveals “hurt” from Hamilton decision

Formula One is set to see one of the greatest driver pairings in recent memory. Lewis Hamilton’s announcement he was leaving his eleven year relationship with Mercedes to join Ferrari sets up the tantalising prospect of the seven times world champion competing alongside Ferrari’s young gun Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton has not had it all his own way since Toto Wolff decided to ditch Valtteri Bottas and promote academy driver George Russell. The young Brit bested his team mate in their first year together in 2022 and Hamilton returned the favour in ’23.

This year Lewis has been out qualified by Russell again but in recent weeks has been closing the gap with the score currently at 6-8. His two victories in Silverstone and Belgium see him sixth in the driver’s championship on 150 points, while George is two slots back with a score of 116 after fourteen races… READ MORE