Chapter 1: What were Carlos Sainz's reflections on leaving McLaren?
In Formula One, being in the right team at the right time is crucial. Carlos Sainz left McLaren in 2020. Five years later, his former team and his former teammate are the reigning world champions. But when I asked him if he has any regrets, his answer was immediate. No, and I tell you why not. Carlos is working on something, building something with Williams.
As F1 enters a new era, he feels he's in the right team. He's confident their time will come.
If you ask me in three, four years' time where I would like to be, I'd say ideally fighting for a championship with Williams. There's nothing that would make me happier. than putting all my effort using the peak of my career to bring back one of the greatest teams in F1 back to the top. And if we manage to achieve that, I'll look back being very, very proud for sure.
Hello everyone, I'm Tom Clarkson and this is the first F1 Beyond the Grid of 2026. I sat down with Carlos Sainz after the first pre-season test in Bahrain. He'd had a taste of his new car, enough to talk about how it feels behind the wheel and to see where the team needs to improve. We also look back at his first season with Williams, how he went from feeling powerless to reaching the podium.
And he talks about what he calls his life's project, winning with Williams. Carlos, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. How are you?
How was the shortest off season of your career? I'm good, thank you. But yeah, it was a short time away from the circuits. But at the same time, I think everyone was so excited with the new regs and like looking forward to get back to the track that Yeah, I didn't care too much about having a short break because I also wanted to get back soon to see how these new cars feel.
Well, come on to them. But when you're balancing, you know, just a couple of weeks off, which was the case, how do you get it right between rest and preparation for the new year?
Yeah, I think you said it well. I think it was... Pure weeks off was only two weeks, because for us as drivers, we are normally busy all the way until the 20th of December after the season ends.
We have the Abu Dhabi test, then we go back to the factory, do our last simulator sessions of the year, maybe some end of year Christmas celebrations with the team, which still commitments all the way, sponsor things all the way until the 20th. And then we have obviously Christmas off, probably until the beginning of New Year's where we start our training again. And it's only two weeks.
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Chapter 2: How did Carlos Sainz overcome challenges in his first season with Williams?
It was extremely frustrating, probably the most frustrating time in my career. It was one point in the opening four races, wasn't it? I don't know. It was a disaster because I've never felt so powerless in a sense where I felt I had done testing right, I had adapted to the car quick,
I understood the car fairly well, but then in the first 10 races of the season, I would say one different thing happened to me, and I learned one new thing every time from those 10 races.
That didn't matter if it was the team, myself, or just incidents or things that were sometimes in my control and other times out of my control, but it was 10 races where it didn't matter how quick I was, didn't matter how quick I had adapted to the Williams car, Car was competitive and Alex was doing top fives, top sixes here and there.
And I was like, I don't understand why I cannot get that top five or top six if I know I'm as quick or sometimes quicker, sometimes a bit slower, but I felt quick. But the results never came. I kept believing that I said, at one point this is going to change and all the bad luck and the bad things are happening. It's going to pay me back because it's not normal what's happening.
And look, then Baku came.
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. Vamos! Vamos! Best podium in my career, guys. You cannot imagine how this pays. This is my first smooth operation in Williams. And not the last.
What was the key to unlocking the potential? Was there one moment?
I've been trying to debrief my season with my team to try to understand what happened in those 12, 13 races because I was like, it's not normal. Like I've never had such a bad run of 10, 12 races where nothing went well for me.
against showing good speed so that at least was not the concern it's not like now i'm three four tenths of the pace like we've seen sometimes other drivers be like not even in the pace like i know i'm in the pace but there's something that is just not clicking and trying to debrief it and we came to a couple of conclusions that i will not personally share here but
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Chapter 3: What are Carlos Sainz's impressions of the 2026 F1 cars?
Obviously, I went into that race trying to win it. Like I try to do it with every race. I say, if I can get Max at the start and miraculously pull away, I will try. But because that's my, when I put the helmet on, I'm like, turn one, let's see how I can get to P1 and see if then I get my elbows out or something.
There was the infamous dinner with James Vowles leading up to Baku. Did we make too much of that? Or what was said at that dinner?
No, we were just, same thing really, just trying to understand what was going on. I think we were just openly talking of what is happening, like, what do you think, James, I'm doing well? What do you think I'm not doing well? Why do you think I'm quick but things are not clicking? Like, wanting to have his opinion and him wanting to hear from me of what did I think of what's happening.
It was honestly a fun dinner, like, full open conversation. not too serious or not too concerning, just trying to understand between each other what we could both come up with a solution or with an understanding of what was happening. That's it, nothing major. Did it feel like a win?
Yeah, I said it at the time, the best podium of my career because of all the accumulation of, I want to say a bad word, but I will not say the accumulation of a pile of mess that had been building up for 12 races and then finally that happened and you saw the rest of the season how it went. Never looked back.
Never looked back and it's probably one of the most important lessons in my career that year 2025. So what is the lesson? Just keep trying. Never give up.
If you think you're doing things right and you believe in your method and you believe you're giving everything, you're giving everything to your team, you're giving everything from yourself, you're giving everything towards your sport, your routines, your commitment, your hard work. If you go to bed that night and say, did you give everything?
And I went to bed all those nights saying, I am giving everything. Things are just not clicking. And when I went to bed saying, Even that night in Baku, I reminded myself, remember, you're giving it everything for this project to go well for you. And if it just doesn't click, doesn't click, but you're doing it.
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Chapter 4: How does Carlos Sainz view his career peak and future goals?
Don't settle for clothes that don't last. Go to quince.com slash grid for free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash grid Well, then fast forward to Qatar, right? And I remember you saying going into that race, no, it might be one of our worst races of the year. We had been talking about it.
We had been talking about it for, I would say, four or five months within the team. Like, oh my God, we did Barcelona, car was not good in Barcelona. We went to Hungary, car was not good in Hungary. And I said, the next one of these is Qatar. And for whatever reason, we did do some extra work in the team. We said, let's prepare Qatar in a different way.
Let's try and put together a car that is a bit away, or let's say out of our comfort zone for Qatar. Let's believe that the job we did in Hungary and Barcelona is not good enough, and let's put something a bit different and take a bit more risk going into Qatar, knowing it's also a sprint. We did a good options on the setup.
And like always, when you work hard, when you think out of the box and when you try, sometimes you get surprises.
Did you think outside the box in terms of setup a lot last year? Is that one of the reasons it took a while to gel?
Yeah, sometimes I'm a bit of an overthinker and I consider myself someone that uses the head a lot. And sometimes last year, probably I was spending the first 10, 12 races trying things outside of the box that didn't work, you need to remember in F1 there's no testing. And part of the reason of why drivers, when we go to new teams, it takes us a long time to adapt is because we cannot test.
We cannot test outside of a race weekend. So we need to use race weekends to test the setup directions that help our adaptation to the team. Now, what happens if let's say 80% of the times, whenever we test something, it doesn't work because it has been tested before by all the other drivers. And if the car is on that other baseline setup, it's because this never works.
But you still want to try it because you say, it might work for me. Well, 80% of the times, never works. Let's say until you find one or two items that work for you.
And how important was it to go through all of that in 2025 ahead of the regulation changes this year? If it was a new team for you in 26, how much harder would it be?
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Chapter 5: What lessons did Carlos Sainz learn from his difficult times in F1?
almost dead last in the qualifying and the race of Bahrain. And what I would have thought back then, like how can I, I would be winning races with Ferrari, like, and I think it was the right thing to do at the right time. And the only thing I feel is happiness for the team that still, when they were on their way up, they had a bit of a blip in 22 and 23.
And then they went back to win a year later the Constructors' Championship in 24 and become World Champions drivers in 25 with... a good friend of mine, Lando, and I just feel honestly happy for them. I don't feel any regrets.
Just while we're talking about McLaren, Lando, how have you seen him grow as a driver in the last few years?
I think Lando has been always quick. Since the day he became an F1 driver, he was I think turning heads already with his lap times in testing and how quick he was in 19 and 20 when I was his teammate in Quali. I think he's just become a bit more of an all-rounder through the last six years. And he's become more championship material.
And then he confirmed it in 25 with a very strong second part of the season. I think fair play to him. I think he did it his way. which was never going to be the easy way. Sometimes Lando complicates things a bit, but even complicating himself a bit, he managed to turn it around and managed to win, which is Lando's way. You can still beat him at golf, right? Yeah, yeah.
And in F1 I can still beat him in F1. Let's talk about 2026 now. I mean, it feels like a complete change for everybody. In what areas is your job different in the cockpit?
Our job in the cockpit is not as different as people think it is. We just need to worry about maybe carrying one or two gears down compared to last year. downshifting as early as we can and not very different from that. They find ways to waste a little bit less energy, but honestly, our job is not as different. It's just how different it feels.
While you do that, it feels completely different, and you just have to adapt to how different it feels. The starts are very different, and the race ability of the car is going to be very different, but this, until we don't go racing, I will not be able to tell you how different it is.
What aspect feels most different to you? Is it the narrower tires? Is it the lack of or less ground effect? Is it the increase in electrical energy?
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Chapter 6: How does Carlos Sainz perceive the changes in F1 regulations for 2026?
I don't complain about being complicated. I'm...
happy to be challenged and then especially i'm happy to also challenge the engineers to make it better because that's that's what they're gonna do what about the racing on a sunday afternoon do you think how's that gonna play out you know with no drs now are you gonna be able to control your pursuers like you did in singapore when you won the race for example
I don't think so. I need to come up with a new solution to that. But let me say the key of these regulations and my recommendation right now to FIA and FOM would be to stay open-minded with the way we use the overtake mode. Because the solution that we might have come up now for Bahrain might be the right one, but maybe for a different circuit is a bit different.
And if we want to make racing good and still put on a good show, we might need to adapt and learn from these regulations because I don't even think FIA, FOM know how much overtake mode to put for each track, how difficult it's going to be to follow or not follow with these regs.
So I think we need to, as a sport, we need to stay very open-minded to adapt those regulations to what we start seeing on the first few races.
Is there one particular kind of driver that will excel with these cars? I guess the people who have been sim racing since they were in short trousers. I mean, you've all got spare mental capacity behind the wheel.
The level in Formula One nowadays is so high. I honestly think the 20 drivers, 22 drivers are extremely talented. We will all find a way. Like there's not enough difference in talent across the whole grid to tell you there's gonna be a few guys that sort it out better. Maybe there's a few guys that get it a bit earlier or a bit later than others.
but we will all find out the best way to drive it. That's why when last week I started seeing journalists analyzing the drivers that have adapted the quickest to do these regulations, it's so much. It's like, come on. You don't even know what we're testing. You don't even know what we're doing. You don't even know if our PUs are allowing us to do what other drivers are allowed to do.
Like, it's too early. Calm down, give us a few days of testing, and let's give it time.
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Chapter 7: What role does Carlos Sainz see himself playing within the Williams team?
We need to help each other because there's a lot of work. And when I say a lot of work, it's a lot of work to do.
And does it help in this instance that your team principal is also an engineer or in the conversations he can have at Bricksworth?
Yeah. In general, James likes being involved and it's great to have a team principal that also understands. He likes driving himself. So when you talk to him about a downshift or when you talk to him about drivability, he gets it because he's...
an amateur but a driver himself and um and he he likes it he's also an engineer so he's a bit of a hybrid you know between driver and engineer more of an engineer let's say but also a bit of a driver and i think it's always cool sharing a good conversation with him did you give him any advice before his race in abu dhabi at the end of last year he did a endurance race didn't he you know was it mclaren i think it was a mclaren
Oh, we had just been there driving a Formula One, but an F1 is so different for a GT car that I couldn't give him much advice.
Keep off the curb at turn 12 or whatever.
Because with a GT, you can stay on the curb compared to an F1. So I would, no, the only thing I ask to him is keep me posted, like keep sending me updates of how you're doing.
and anything you need here we are both alexa we have a group with him and yeah and he kept sending us updates of how he was he did great i think so i think he did yeah yeah podium i'd love to know what you put on that whatsapp group but that's probably a different conversation how much of it's serious how much of it is light for that you will need to pay to have access
But tell me a little bit more about James. He tried so hard to get you to join his team. He talked about the courting process and the late night dinners and all that sort of stuff.
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Chapter 8: How has fame impacted Carlos Sainz's life and interactions with fans?
But then the more you become famous and the more time you spend being famous, the more of a ballast it is. Like in a sense where... the more exposed you are and the more time you spend exposed and the less you like it in that sense. It's something that I'm dealing with, let's say, every year a bit worse. And this is me being very open with you.
Every time an extra picture or an extra moment of privacy that is interrupted, let's say, is a bit more painful. I don't know if it's because the amount of times this happens to you or that is also that we are becoming more famous as my career has continued, because F1 has been exponentially getting, you're getting more and more famous.
without never crossing the boundaries of obviously always being well-mannered, educated to anyone who comes to me. It is true that more and more often it's something that I suffer a bit more from. Struggle, let's say, is the right word.
Does a day go by when you don't get asked for a photograph or a request come in or is that just the reality every single day? Yeah, every single day.
If I leave home, pretty much every single day.
Which is... Are you becoming more insular as a result?
Yeah. Do you stay at home more?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think I do. I do. Or I avoid busy places or... Yeah. Maybe I'm an introvert and I don't like... Maybe there's other people that love it and the more famous they become, the more they are out there.
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