Tom Clarkson

The driver who joined Ferrari didn't finish on the podium in 2025, but the driver who left did.

For the first time with Williams, Carlos Sainz will stand on the podium.

It's Williams' first podium since 2021 and in a full race since here in 2017.

And just six races later, Carlos did it again, taking P3 in Qatar.

I spoke to Williams team principal James Valls after the first podium in Baku, and as you'd expect, he was incredibly proud.

First and foremost, I'm ecstatic for Carlos.

You know, the pace has been there for a lot of the year.

And dare I say, he needed a result like this for the world to see that he is still the Carlos that deserves to be there and that we're fortunate as Williams to have him along by our side.

And he earned it.

He earned it in qualifying and he earned it in the race as well.

I'm really proud of Williams.

I'm proud of Williams because it's a team that was...

in the dark trenches of survival just a few years ago.

And yet, this was an earned podium.

It wasn't luck or fortune that were there.

Aldo's had 50 laps to chase us down.

We were good.

And so for me, it meant the most of anything when it wasn't so much on the day on the podium.

Of course, it was great to see the team track side enjoying it.

The most it meant to me was when I was back in the factory, we put the trophy in reception and I just came down just randomly every half an hour or hour.