Ferrari legend Gino Rostao said that he was confident that Williams racer Carlos Sainz would make his comeback to the Italian side after getting his first podium for Williams in the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Spanish racer had been an integral part of the Maranello-based outfit for four years 2017 to 2021, with them and all four of his races with Prancing Horses.
However, he was dropped by Ferrari at the end of 2024 after they announced the arrival of Lewis Hamilton from 2025 onwards. While both Hamilton and Sainz have found it tough to adapt to their respective new teams this year, Sainz managed to put together a clean weekend in Baku and secured the podium at the first time of asking.
In his latest post featuring Charles Leclerc on Instagram, Carlos Sainz shared a short review of his Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend and wrote.
"An eventful end to an eventful weekend in Baku,"
Carlos Sainz reacts on securing podium before Lewis Hamilton
Williams racer Carlos Sainz said that he was not bothered by securing his first podium at the Grove-based outfit before Lewis Hamilton could do the same at Ferrari.
Speaking in his post-race press conference, the four-time F1 race winner reflected on the subject and said:
"What everyone else does is not my business, to be honest. What I care about is that the first opportunity that I had to score a podium with Williams, and the first opportunity Williams had to score a podium, we took it, we scored it, and there it is."
The Spanish racer also said that he was not hoping for any further miracles from the 2025 challenger:
"I think the podium is — unless something crazy happens — maybe our best chance. Probably Vegas will be our next best track to try and maybe put together a top five or a top six, which is what we sometimes can achieve when everything goes right.
"But the rest, for example, in Qatar, I don’t think we will score points. That’s how much our performance swings. But then we will have the Austins, the Mexicos. We will be a pure midfield car where we can maybe get in some points and keep our championship going."
Before his podium in Baku, Carlos Sainz had only 16 points from 16 races and three sprints in the 2025 season and largely struggled to match his fellow teammate Alex ALbon's results.