Why Azerbaijan P3 ‘means more than first podium’ for Carlos Sainz

Having delivered in a dramatic Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying, Carlos Sainz was rewarded with a front row start for the race.

Sainz did not disappoint, driving his Williams to a third-place finish, very much on merit, a result which marked his first podium as a Williams driver. For Sainz, it meant “even more” than his maiden podium in Formula 1, scored back in 2019.

Carlos Sainz on first Williams podium: ‘This one means even more’

No fewer than six red flags were thrown in Baku qualifying. That was a new Formula 1 record. But, while key players such as Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris hit the wall, Sainz held his nerve, and with minutes to go, was sat on provisional pole.

Ultimately, only his former Toro Rosso teammate Max Verstappen would deny him.

Come race day, Verstappen – like at Monza – was untouchable, while George Russell combined strategy and a Mercedes W16 loving the cooler conditions to secure second. Sainz came home in a very impressive third. His 28th podium overall, that was Sainz’s first with Williams, as the team returned to the top three, a scene last visited at Spa, 2021.

Sainz first took to the podium in 2019, when he finished the Brazilian Grand Prix third with McLaren. Speaking after the race in Baku, it was put to Sainz that he had earlier described this podium as even sweeter than his maiden one.

“Yeah, 100 per cent,” he replied. “This one means even more 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.

“I’m very comfortable in this working environment, also very comfortable with everyone around me.

“And I have actually been pretty fast all year with the car. 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.”

Key talking points from the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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Asked what was the key to the result, Sainz added: “The key was probably just nailing a perfect weekend from practice, qualy, to race. It’s what I’ve been looking for since the beginning of the season — just to nail a perfect weekend.

“I think we had almost a perfect one in Jeddah when we scored maximum points, but then the rest of the season has been really up and down with a lot more downs than ups. Very unlucky in some cases. Job not well done in others — by me or by other things that were in our control.

“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 okay. And it’s exactly what ended up happening today. We had our chance starting from P2.

“Probably, if you asked many of us yesterday, we didn’t believe the podium was actually achievable with so many fast cars behind. 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.

“Only George managed to beat us with very good pace, but it was a very well executed race.”

The result catapulted Sainz up to 12th in the Drivers’ Championship. Williams meanwhile is up to 101 points, as they bid to see off the threat of Racing Bulls and Aston Martin to secure P5 in the Constructors’ Championship.

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