F1 Mid-Season Ranking #11: Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz has had a mixed season at Williams, troubled by problems, crashes and collisions. How has he fared according to our rankings so far? 

Feature image credit: Williams Racing

Sainz has been a mixed bag this season, and we have ranked him slap-bang in the middle of our rankings, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, as the last driver inside the bottom 11. 

It was a slow start to his new adventure at Williams, following an abrupt move from Ferrari to make way for Lewis Hamilton. A crash in the opening weekend did not get his debut appearance off to a good start, crashing out at the end of the first lap.

Sainz had reported and blamed the crash on a torque surge as he was travelling at slow speeds around the final corner, which spun his car around.  

At times, he has shown some decent performances in the Williams, where he has put Williams alongside his former seat at Ferrari, now occupied by Hamilton. Other times, he has struggled to get the performance out of the Williams.  

Embed from Getty Images

His standout performances, in our books, come at both the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Emilia-Romagna GP, where the Spaniard scored 15 points in both rounds, in our rankings. However, the former did see him end with a DNF after a collision with Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda. 

He was given a single point – in our rankings – after he failed to start the Austrian Grand Prix, after his brakes caught fire in the pit lane at the Red Bull Ring. 

In terms of head-to-heads against Alexander Albon, the Spaniard is trailing his teammate in both qualifying and race performances. Albon has the edge in qualifying, leading 8-6 in traditional qualifying and 2-1 in sprint qualifying. 

For race trim, Albon continues to outperform Sainz, leading 10-4 over the Spaniard in the Grand Prix and 2-1 in the sprint race. 

See how we rated Sainz across the season so far. 

2025 Rankings: 

• Australian GP: 7 Points 

• Chinese GP: 8 Points

• Japanese GP: 6 Points

• Bahrain GP: 15 Points

• Saudi Arabia GP: 14 Points

• Miami GP: 12 Points

• Imola GP: 15 Points

• Monaco GP: 12 Points

• Spanish GP: 4 Points

• Canadian GP: 11 Points

• Austrian GP: 1 Point

• British GP: 6 Points

• Belgium GP: 7 Points

• Hungarian GP: 5 Points

Total Points: 123 Points

DISCLAIMER: 

As previously confirmed, we rank drivers out of 20 points across each race weekend of the season. The highest performing, or best driver, of the weekend would get a maximum score of 20 points, while each driver below them would be ranked one point less.  

If a driver does not start a race, they will be automatically given one point.

If more than one driver does not start a race, these points will be handed out in order it is announced i.e. Driver 1 (D1) is announced not to start two hours before the race start, but Driver 2 (D2) retires on the way to – or on – the grid, D1 will get one point and D2 will get two points.

Read more Formula 1 here:

• F1 Mid-Season Ranking #12: Nico Hulkenberg
• F1 Mid-Season Ranking #13: Pierre Gasly
• F1 Mid-Season Ranking #14: Esteban Ocon
• F1 Mid-Season Ranking #15: Oliver Bearman
• F1 Mid-Season Ranking #16: Liam Lawson
• F1 Mid-Season Rankings #17: Gabriel Bortoleto

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.