Carlos Sainz: Top 10 Australian GP start "definitely" vindicates Williams move

Carlos Sainz feels his decision to move to Williams has already been justified with the qualifying performance in Australia.

Carlos Sainz is "very proud" of Williams after both he and his new team-mate Alex Albon made it into the top 10 in qualifying. The Spanish driver will start the race from 10th and Albon will start from 6th.

After his shock replacement by Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, Sainz decided to sign with Williams due to the vision of team principal James Vowles. Having such a strong qualifying performance straight off the bat in 2025 shows the gains that the Grove outfit has made over the winter.

Sainz also feels that the top 10 start justifies his decision to move to Williams.

He explained to Sky Sports F1 after qualifying:

"Yeah, very happy, very proud of the whole team, the way we've managed to progress through the winter and put together a car that is allowing us to be in Q3 for the first time in many years with both cars. I think it's great.

"And it can only get better because I have so much more potential, you know, to unlock as soon as I understand how to extract lap time in Q3.

"I was pretty strong in testing on the weekend, but clearly when it came to Q3, I didn't know where to find the lap time, and I did a few mistakes, and now I need to build that for me."

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

When asked if he feels vindicated in choosing Williams after he was replaced at Ferrari by seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, Sainz explained:

"Yeah, definitely. Might be how it's meant to be, and now it's a matter of working hard because I see a lot of potential in this team. A lot of potential to unleash from myself just yet with a team with full support and full machinery working into the right places and I feel like we're in the right path."

While speaking to the media, including Motorsport.com, Sainz admitted that he expects a steep learning curve tomorrow if it rains, as is predicted.

"It will be my first lap ever in a Williams in the wet, and it will be in a race, so it would be a steep learning curve. But not only to me, everyone who's changed teams, everyone who is a bit more new to the situation, you can see everyone's trailing a bit in qualifying, you know, because you're always one step behind.

"When you know a car very well, you can always be one step ahead and that's the difference between being one or two-tenths in front or one or two-tenths behind. I feel like this is just the beginning.

"I'm just gonna get better at it, and I'm just gonna keep improving. Massive learning curve for me and a margin of improvement."