Claire Williams hails Sainz’s first Williams podium: “Frank would’ve been very proud”
Carlos Sainz stood on the Baku rostrum in dark blue at the weekend, and somewhere between the fireworks and the flag, Claire Williams hit send. “So many congratulations to Carlos Sainz and everyone at Williams Racing after their podium. I know Frank would be very proud! As am I!”
It was the sort of line that landed with weight. Sainz only joined Williams this year, a headline transfer that felt both bold and slightly romantic—a proven race winner betting on the Grove rebuild. It hasn’t been simple. For much of 2025 he’s been playing catch-up to Alex Albon, wrestling for rhythm while the program around him learns how to make good days stick.
Baku, though, was the proper glimpse. In a messy qualifying session he kept his head and stuck it on the front row. On Sunday he backed it up, nursing what he had and fighting for what he could to deliver his first podium in Williams colours. For the team, it was the first since George Russell’s classified P2 in that surreal, rain-shortened Spa 2021 race. For Sainz, it was a reminder that he didn’t come here to drift.
There’s a neat circle to all this. Claire Williams, who ran the team from 2013 to 2020, revealed earlier this year that she’d previously tried to bring Sainz to Grove. He was a Toro Rosso debutant in 2015, ambitious and upwardly mobile, and Williams—then in the throes of chasing its way back to the front—saw a long-term fit. It didn’t happen. He went via Renault, McLaren and Ferrari; Williams crashed through a brutal rebuild. And yet a decade on, here they are: Sainz in a Williams, Williams on a podium, the former deputy team principal smiling from the sidelines.
The symbolism doesn’t stop with the driver. Santander, a long-time Sainz backer, followed him from Ferrari to Williams at the end of 2024 and signed a multi-year deal. Claire, now an ambassador for the Spanish bank, has leaned back into Formula 1 in softer focus—appearing in Drive to Survive, doing punditry, and popping back into the paddock without the weight that used to live on her shoulders.
She returned to Silverstone with Channel 4 in July and called it “overwhelming in many ways”—the kind of honest admission you only get after truly stepping away. There’s no appetite for a full-time leadership role again, she says, but the door’s open for occasional commentary and ambassadorial work. It suits her. You sense Baku’s result was the first time she could simply enjoy Williams success without mentally running through budget lines and wind-tunnel hours.
For Sainz, the podium matters because it shifts the narrative. He’s been measured against Albon all year and found wanting too often for his liking. The Azerbaijan weekend asked different questions—precision, patience, opportunism—and he delivered. It doesn’t mean Williams has suddenly cracked the code, but it proves there’s a ceiling higher than the season’s mean. That alone gives a driver something to lean on.
It also taps into the Williams identity that Claire’s message evoked. Sir Frank lived for days like this: punch hard, punch clever, and bring home something to polish. The team’s reality is still one of consistent scoring and slow-burn development, but that doesn’t make a good Sunday any less grand. In the grandstands you could feel it—this wasn’t a lucky break so much as a well-earned exhale.
Claire’s own journey mirrors the team’s pivot from exhaustion to optimism. She’s clear about why she left in 2020 and equally clear that coming back in any heavy capacity isn’t on the cards. Instead she’s chosen the lighter touch: celebrate the team, support the sport, and keep a close eye on her family. The visit to the Williams garage at Silverstone was a reunion, not a job interview. “It felt more like closure,” she said, and you believe her.
The funny thing about closure, though, is that it often frees you up to cheer with your whole chest. When Sainz parked up under the podium in Baku, there was a ripple of satisfaction through people who’ve ever worn a Williams shirt. The current leadership gets the credit. The driver delivered. The sponsor decals gleamed. And one of the team’s most familiar faces, now watching from the other side of the glass, got to say what everyone in Grove was thinking: Frank would’ve loved this.
If Williams can bottle that feeling, there’s more to come. Sainz has always been a rhythm driver; when the beat lands, he finds tenths in the seams. Albon is a relentless reference. The car, on the right circuit with the right breeze, is quick enough to do damage. No one inside the team will pretend Baku changes everything. But it changes enough.
For now, that’s plenty.
