Carlos Sainz’s arrival at Williams in 2025 goes to trigger the group to must adapt to the way in which it really works and could possibly be daunting for the engineering group, in response to chief engineer Dave Robson.
Williams pursued Sainz for quite a few months and secured his signature forward of the summer season break, with the three-time race-winner changing Logan Sargeant subsequent yr. Sainz will associate Alex Albon from 2025 onwards, with each signing multi-year offers, and Robson says it’s going to change the dynamic inside Williams that may imply the group wants to regulate.
“I believe there’s a few issues which might be going to be a bit of bit daunting for us as an engineering group,” Robson mentioned. “There’s little doubt that it’s nice information for us, and an actual sign of intent, and we’ll undoubtedly make issues higher.
“However I believe Carlos himself, I don’t actually know him as a person, however I do know that he has a status for actually driving everyone very arduous to get every little thing out of the automotive. So he’s going to be demanding I’m positive, which we want, however on the similar time I do know from my early time at Williams once we had Felipe [Massa] and Valtteri [Bottas], or earlier than that at McLaren, when you’ve got two drivers who’re pushing one another and combating for the intense points-paying positions, then it turns into far more troublesome.
“It’s simply an order of magnitude tougher on the pit wall once you’ve obtained two automobiles instantly racing one another. There’s no motive to assume that it’s going to finish up being dangerous, undoubtedly not, it’s going to finish up being good, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly going to be completely different to what we’ve form of obtained used to.”
Robson says the primary yr working with Sainz earlier than new rules are launched will probably be essential within the group’s growth to get essentially the most out of its driver partnership.
“With a view to 2026 … there’s a load of engineering work to do to grasp the automotive higher and make the automotive sooner, take what we will into 2026. However truly loads of the educational course of subsequent yr will probably be about understanding Carlos himself, remodeling the dynamic of the group trackside – and on the manufacturing unit – to grasp take care of two drivers who’re competing with one another.
“It’s implausible information, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly going to shake us up a bit, in a great way.”
