Sainz thinks a poor finish in Abu Dhabi could be a good thing for Williams | RACER

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been a wake-up call for Williams in terms of the amount of work still to be done, but Carlos Sainz says the team is marking itself as a force to be reckoned with going forward. In fact, he says he welcomes the last-race downturn in some ways as an impetus for offseason gains.

Sainz scored a surprise podium finish in Qatar a week before the final race of the season, but could not follow that up with a points-scoring finish at the Yas Marina Circuit as he finished 13th. With Alex Albon crossing the line a few seconds behind his teammate, Williams was uncompetitive in Abu Dhabi, and Sainz sees it as a good motivator for the team heading into the short off-season.

“I think we started 12th and we were the 12th fastest car,” said Sainz. “Because nothing exciting happens during that race, we will always finish there – of course with [Lewis] Hamilton comes through the pack and becomes 13th. I think we did everything we could to finish in the points.

“There just wasn’t enough pace this weekend, which hopefully is a good wake-up call for the team in case you come back to Abu Dhabi after a podium finish thinking you’re going to be strong. Now we were quite weak this weekend. I’m actually glad that happened, so we’re going into a winter without falling asleep.”

Despite the disappointment in the last race, Sainz says the way he managed to achieve strong results in the second half of the year shows how much potential Williams has going into the next set of technical regulations from 2026.

“I certainly think it’s been a very challenging first half of the season, but I hope that all that frustration I got from that first half, even if we were fast, even if the adjustment was good, if all that frustration meant getting two podiums and one podium in the sprint, I certainly welcome that frustration and that lack of points in the first half.

But I think in the second half I proved to everyone – myself and Williams to everyone – why we made this move, what we are trying to achieve here and why I think we are now a force to be reckoned with for the future.

“If you had told me last year that I would have scored those podiums and a P5 in the constructors’ race like we did, I would have accepted that. I think overall we have to look at it as a very positive first year with Williams.”