Carlos Sainz and Williams celebrate podium in Baku. Photo: RacePictures

Williams podium sweeter than his first: "This team's on the rise'

18:57, 21 Sep

byNorberto Mujica

Carlos Sainz has recorded his first podium for Williams during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a feat the Spaniard knew it could've been achieved from the sart.

Carlos Sainz celebrates his first podium with Williams. Photo: RacePictures

"But I think we’ve had good pace this year, we just didn’t have many opportunities to show it."

- Carlos Sainz

What was the missing ingredient in the Williams mix that prevented them from achieving a top result? "The key was probably just nailing a perfect weekend from practice, quali, to race," Sainz said after the race.

"It’s what I’ve been looking for since the beginning of the season — just to nail a perfect weekend." However, good luck was hard to come by on his side of the garage, Sainz believes.

Despite the ill fortunes, the Williams driver never let that dampen his spirits.

"But I always said to the team from the beginning that whenever a first big opportunity of fighting for a podium comes, as long as we have everything under control and nothing goes wrong and we prove to everyone what we’re doing, and we get that podium, then I’ll be OK. And it’s exactly what ended up happening today."

Sainz then revealed the entirety of Williams had all but discarded the possibility of a podium during the race, given the speedy nature of the cars behind them: Mercedes, Ferrari and Yuki Tsunoda's Red Bull car.

"But I think we’ve had good pace this year, we just didn’t have many opportunities to show it. Today we had a very good opportunity to show our very good pace, and we managed to stay on the podium."

In the end only one of those superior cars made its way past Sainz FW47: George Russell's W16. But, even with that, the Spaniard complimented his team on a "very well executed race."

Williams podium sweeter than the first one

For Sainz the emotions following his first appearance on the rostrum wearing Williams colours revealed a powerful moment within him.

"This one means even more [than my first ever F1 podium] just because of, obviously, a year ago when I put my bet on Williams, and I said I’m going to this team because I truly believe in this project, and I truly believe that this team is on the rise."

The Spaniard then spoke of how at home he felt at the Grove-based team, and made a bold claim that might just be laid at his replacement at Ferarri's doorstep: Lewis Hamilton.

"I think out of everyone that’s changed teams — which is not an easy task nowadays — I’ve been very competitive from the first race, very quick, but I didn’t have results with me.

"I didn’t have results to prove to myself, the team, and everyone that some good things were about to come. But, in the end, they did.

"I think life has taught me many times that this sometimes happens — that you have a run of misfortune or bad performances, but then suddenly life gives you back if you keep working hard with something really sweet like this," Sainz concluded.

Vowles backs Sainz all the way

Following his first podium ever as team principal, James Vowles acknowledged the tough times Sainz spent at Williams stating that the Spaniard was in need of such a result.

Complimenting his driver for the race he executed through the streets of Baku Vowles added: “I spoke to him on Thursday, we had dinner together and said 'this is a reset point where we start and move forward in our season' and he needed this result. You'll see now the positive momentum it generates.”