Carlos Sainz insists final races with Ferrari won't be his last chance of fighting for F1 wins amid Williams move

Carlos Sainz is confident that the final races of his four-year stint with Ferrari – before his impending switch to Williams – will not be his last chance of fighting for F1 victories, with the Spaniard determined to put himself in a position to contend for wins again in the future.

Since joining the Scuderia in 2021, Sainz has stood on the top step of the podium on four occasions, the most recent of these coming at the Mexican Grand Prix in which he bounced back after initially losing the lead to Max Verstappen.

The 30-year-old now has three chances left to triumph with Ferrari prior to his move to Williams in 2025, having been forced to find a new opportunity following the news earlier in the year that Lewis Hamilton will join the Italian outfit next season.

When asked during the recent triple header if he felt a special desire to win during his final races as a Ferrari driver – with it being put to him that it could be more difficult to do this at Williams – Sainz responded: “Nothing special, apart from obviously a lot of motivation to try to achieve it.

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“Nothing would make me happier than achieving something like that before the end of the year. I'm going to give it my absolute best. If it comes, great, and I'll be for sure celebrating. And if it doesn't, I don't believe it will be my last chance of fighting for wins or podiums in Formula 1.

“I'll remain working hard to try to get myself in a position – even if it's with Williams or [in the] future ahead – to put myself in a position to win another race, because that's what I'm hungry for and that's what I believe I can do, and that's what I've proven that I can do in Ferrari. So, yeah, it doesn't end there.”

News of Sainz’s move to Williams came after months of speculation over where the man from Madrid would be racing in 2025. While he admits that seeing the Grove outfit make progress on track this season is important, Sainz has also acknowledged that there were wider factors that influenced his choice.

“On one side, it's very important [to see them performing this year] because obviously during those conversations with James [Vowles], we did talk a lot about this year, how much they were going to improve and which position they were going to be on for 2025,” Sainz explained.

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - OCTOBER 26: Pole position qualifier Carlos Sainz of Spain driving (55) the — Sainz is about to embark on his final races as a Ferrari driver before switching to Williams in 2025

“And so far, he's been a man of his word and his kind of expectations, which with upgrades in Formula 1, you never know, because you saw it clearly this year that bringing three tenths to the car doesn't always mean three tenths on paper.

“The team seems to be taking their steps in the right direction. At the same time, this news that I was receiving from him and these promises – because they were not promises, they were expectations of the car getting quicker through the season and into next year – didn't affect that much my decision.

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“As I said, my decision was a lot more based on the people and the feeling that I was getting from talking to the management, talking to the owners and the feeling that I was getting from the whole organisation, and not so much about the short-term performance gains that they were getting.

“And definitely what convinced me more than the downforce they were going to add or where the team was going to be in six months [or] one [year’s] time, was the people and the professionalism and the vision of the project that they had. This was the main differentiator to me.”