Carlos Sainz handed astonishing verdict in Williams revival

Jacques Villeneuve has claimed Carlos Sainz "has basically changed" Williams after the Grove-based squad enjoyed its best F1 season in almost a decade.

The 137 points the Spanish driver and Alex Albon achieved over the 2025 campaign were just one fewer than the mark set by Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in 2016.

Williams finished fifth in the constructors' championship both times — as it also did in 2017, but with only 83 points — and was already in a slow decline by that stage, which accelerated in the intervening years.

Numerous lean seasons followed as the team facilities and infrastructure became outdated. However, under the leadership of team principal James Vowles, the long-overdue modernisation of the team is underway, and its recovery from backmarker to the sharp end is gathering momentum.

Signing Sainz was one piece of the puzzle, and after a difficult start, the four-time grand prix winner, too, started picking up steam.

He ended the campaign with two podium finishes and outscored Albon by 48 points to three over the final 8 rounds to end the year just nine points behind his team-mate.

The 31-year-old has moved teams a lot during his F1 career, from Toro Rosso to Renault to McLaren and then Ferrari, before joining Williams.

He has developed a reputation for improving those he races for, and now he is being credited with helping restore the nine-time constructors' champions by the last driver who lifted the crown with it.

"I was surprised by the smaller teams like Williams and Sauber, Williams especially," Villeneuve, who is now a Williams ambassador, told PokerScout when asked who he felt was the unsung hero of the F1 season.

"Carlos Sainz has basically changed the team. The team stepped forward and got results that were much higher than what they were anticipating because the car had really evolved."

The 1997 F1 drivers' champion put Stake, which has now become Audi, in the same bracket, adding: "You could say the same with Sauber and with Nico Hulkenburg and Gabriel Bortoleto. They were a bit of a surprise," before expanding his point about Sainz.

"I was expecting it from Sainz. That’s why he was signed," the 11-time grand prix winner said.

"The team is making the right racing decisions in terms of the drivers. It’s racing after all. And that’s what they’re doing."