Carlos Sainz’s father still upset son turned down Audi’s “great offer”

Carlos Sainz has revealed his father remains disappointed that he opted to turn down Audi for F1 2025.

Four-time grand prix winner Sainz chose to join Williams after losing his Ferrari seat to seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, but the Spaniard is understood to have had offers from the soon-to-be Audi team and Alpine.

Sainz confirmed that he had a “great offer” from the current Sauber squad and says his two-time World Rally champion father wanted him to join the German manufacturer. Carlos Sainz Sr won his fourth Dakar Rally with Audi last year.

“My father, Carlos, is still disappointed that I didn’t choose Audi’s great offer a few months ago,” Sainz told German publication Blick.

“After my dream of moving to Red Bull or Mercedes fell through, I had to decide between Audi, Alpine, and Williams.

“After visiting the factories and having discussions, my gut feeling immediately told me - go to Williams. They want a better future. And when my heart also said yes, the decision was made.

“I hope that my father, who had great times with Audi, will soon be happy that I chose Williams.”

Sainz buoyed by Williams’ positive start

Williams enjoyed a strong pre-season test in Bahrain and have been tipped to make a step forward compared to last year.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Sainz insisted he has been encouraged by his first impression of the Grove-based outfit.

“It's definitely been a positive start. As I've said many times now, the positive start began in the Abu Dhabi test,” he explained.

“As soon as I jumped into the car and started working with the people I was going to work with this year, I felt I had just joined a team full of motivation - full of people wanting to bring this team back to the front.

"The car also didn’t disappoint me. It was a good test overall in Abu Dhabi, and we've had a strong winter in development. We've tried to hit the ground running this year, and we've had a positive test.

“Having said that, what you call positive - are we going to be half a second, one second off the leaders, I don't know. But hopefully, we can show progress.

“I think that's the fundamental word for us this year: keep showing progress as a team and see where we end up.”

Sainz added: “Progress means being more competitive, fixing the things we didn’t get right last year.

“So far, testing has been positive - reliability, weight of the car, just simple things that maybe in the past, Williams wasn't getting spot on. This year, it’s been the case, and that's exactly what I mean by progress.

"Happy faces, happy people. I see people full of motivation and that's what I care about the most because that's what's going to sustain medium to long-term success.”