Williams wants to advance the beginnings of Carlos Sainzeven though it would in no way be an official test of the calendar of the World of Formula 1. The idea of his new team, with which he signed at the end of last July after learning in February that Lewis Hamilton will replace you in Ferrari from 2025, it is that he will debut with this year’s car in the elimination tests in Abu Dhabi.
Looking back at the last championship, which ended on November 26, 2023, these tests, common in F1, took place two days later on the circuit of Yas Marina. The teams take their two cars out onto the asphalt to perform what is called the test. Pirelli or young driver test.
Therefore, if the English team reaches an agreement with Ferrari, with whom he has a contract until the end of this year, Sainz would test the 2024 Williams before making his debut in the Australian Grand Prix 2025. And if we look at the dates of the current calendar, if the weekend in Abu Dhabi ends on Sunday, December 8, the Spanish driver would make his debut with his new team on Tuesday, December 10.
This is the intention of James Vowleswho will be his boss since his arrival at Williams. “We still have to find an agreement with Ferrari, he has a contract until the end of 2024,” he said in statements collected. Racing News 365. “However, I hope to see him in the car in Abu Dhabi,” confirmed the one who bet the most on his signing.
Williams’ big bet on Sainz
There are already precedents of drivers that Ferrari allowed to practice this same practice and the last one was the legendary Kimi Raikkonen in 2018, when he did these same tests with Sauber before he joins the team the following season. It’s all about marketing, although Vowles says all the media impact will come from what they do on the track: “The real commercial advantage of all F1 teams is simply performance.”
“If you make your car faster, or you have drivers boosting your car, or drivers improving each other and improving the car, that in turn gives you championship position and sponsorship income. This is the secret formula for running an F1 team. “You have to invest your finances in one or two drivers in circumstances that you know will move the team forward,” he added.
“It’s not that the phone rings overnight and someone offers you $20 million. That’s not how it happens, but it’s part of the journey that’s happening. What I can say is that we have existing sponsors that we have been talking to for the last six months and, for them, this may or may not have been the extra trigger that pushed them over the line,” he concluded on some of the reasons they brought him in to put the meat on the grill for the Madrid man.
