Carlos Sainz says his Williams career represents “my life project” as he underlined why helping them eventually return to race-winning ways was so important for him after his first podium finish for them in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Spaniard’s difficult first season of results at Williams was transformed by claiming the team’s first podium finish since 2021, and just the second in the last eight years, with a strong drive to third place in Baku after qualifying on the front row.

It was also comfortably Sainz’s best result since joining at the start of the year after being let go by Ferrari, who brought in Lewis Hamilton to replace him, after he turned down rival offers from midfield rivals to join the James Vowles-led team.

“For me, the vindication is not so much towards moving to Williams. I always believed in this project,” Sainz told Sky Sports F1 after the race.

“I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again – this is my life project.

“If I manage to bring Williams back to being competitive and winning races, it’s everything that I care about and I will put the next three years of my life all my effort into doing that and committing to that.

“I also know that I can do it, because I think I’m good at bringing the team forward.”

The 2025 season has already seen fifth-placed Williams score more points (101) than in the last seven seasons combined (84), putting them on course for their best campaign since at least 2016, when they finished fifth with 138 points.

However, up until Sunday’s season-best haul, just over 80 per cent of the team’s points had been scored by Albon, who is arguably enjoying the best season of his career, despite Sainz arriving as a high-profile signing after winning four grands prix at Ferrari.

Sainz, though, says he remained confident all along that results could come, believing that he actually adapted to his new car quicker than the others who changed teams in a 2025 transfer market headlined by Hamilton’s blockbuster Ferrari switch from Mercedes.

“It’s more vindication of the 14 races that I’ve had, which is good pace, good adaptation,” he said of his podium.

“I think out of all of the ones that have changed teams, I think I’m the one that adapted the quickest to the car, but the results were not coming, so I had no proof.

“But finally a result on a day like today where I could show the pace is what I needed.”

Sainz remains 39 points behind Albon, who did not score, after Baku, although now lead his team-mate 9-8 in the Williams qualifying head-to-head.

He added: “This year has been extremely frustrating to not get results – things out of my control, things in my control, bad luck.

“I always said to the team, whenever the first chance that we get to fight for a podium, as long as nothing happens to us and we can score the podium, I’ll be happy. And that’s exactly what happened.”

‘He needs this’ – Vowles sure more to come from Sainz

Given Albon’s consistent points-scoring form, Sainz’s position towards the foot of the championship before Baku had been one of 2025’s surprises.

Now up six places to 12th, team boss James Vowles thinks the 31-year-old’s season will kick on over the final seven rounds.

“He and I spoke on Thursday, we had dinner together,” said the Williams team principal after the Baku race.

“This is a restart point where we start and move forward on our season.

“He needs this, and you’ll see now the positive momentum it generates.”

Williams the surprise package of 2025

The nine-time constructors’ champions are in their third year under the leadership of former Mercedes strategy chief Vowles, who has initiated wholesale change of their approach to F1 on and off track with backing from the Grove team’s American owners Dorilton Capital.

Having always targeted a more significant step forward in the years from 2026 onwards, when F1’s rules are being overhauled and when they will again be running what most expect to be a class-leading new Mercedes engine, the 2025 form which has taken them to fifth place in the standings has, in many ways, proved an unexpected bonus.

Sky Sports F1’s Bernie Collins:

“It’s super impressive given we all believed going into this year that Williams parked development on this year and were going to focus fully on next year,” she said.

“They were obviously going to continue to work on the race team, pit stops and drivers and all the things that they can do but as far as we know, the car development hasn’t really happened too much this year and they are fully focused on next year.

“James seems to be slowly putting things in place, little by little, getting the team working together, pulling in the same direction and it seems to be really powerful what’s happening at Williams.

“I cannot underestimate the morale boost for Carlos but also for the entire team at Williams [to finish on the podium].”

The 2025 Formula 1 title fight continues under the lights at the Singapore Grand Prix on October 3-5, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime