Italian journalist is certain: “Carlos Sainz’s story is very strange”. In addition to Carlos Sainz, Leo Turrini also discussed the Spaniard's decision to join Williams.

The 2025 F1 season is just around the corner, and all the teams are already preparing for the championship, which will kick off next March. Some previews of the season have already emerged during the Abu Dhabi tests, where attention was focused on drivers debuting with their new teams: Bortoleto and Hulkenberg at Sauber and Esteban Ocon at Haas. However, almost all the attention was drawn to the not entirely official debut of Carlos Sainz with Williams—a transfer that, after Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, caused quite a stir, albeit often in a negative sense.

Williams: fallback or deliberate choice?

Carlos himself recently spoke about his new life as a Williams driver—a reality certainly different from his time at Ferrari. He admitted that his first year in Grove will be tough, as, beyond the challenges already faced in the recent past, the British team will not invest many resources in the 2025 car, focusing instead on the new 2026 regulations. This adds to the psychological challenges he faced after being dropped by Ferrari and failing to secure a seat with Mercedes or Red Bull.

In addition to Carlos Sainz, Leo Turrini also discussed the Spaniard’s decision to join the Grove team on his blog Profondo Rosso. According to Turrini, this move can be interpreted in two ways: either as a lack of alternatives or as a result of deep trust (and knowledge of the project) from the number 55 driver.

“Between 2022 and 2024, only two drivers won at least one GP. One is named Max Verstappen. The other is Carlos Sainz. One […] will drive a car, the Red Bull, that it would be foolish to exclude from championship predictions. The other has ended up at Williams, a team that hasn’t won a GP since 2012 or a championship since 1997 […] Either those who consider Carlitos an excellent driver are wrong. […] To me, it was obvious that the Spaniard, after the launch of the Lewis Hamilton operation at Ferrari, would end up at Mercedes or Red Bull. […] Or. Sainz believes that Williams can rise from the ashes like McLaren. […] The performance gaps at the top have become so ‘narrow’ that climbing back up is not impossible.”