The 2025 season, in addition to creating a long championship (sorry if we're already talking in the past tense, but I'd say we're almost there now), also offered the opportunity for two experienced drivers like Sainz and Hamilton to further develop their physical and mental abilities, having to try their hand at a team change that proved more complicated than expected.
Carlos had to say goodbye to Ferrari and chose to embrace Williams, while the seven-time world champion left Mercedes, the team with which he won six of his titles to join Maranello's court.
Both had a complicated start. Both criticized for failing to keep up with their respective teammates. Even though they faced ‘’the same problem’’ they had different experiences.
Sainz's path
Lewis, still had a ‘’positive’’ first half of the year, while now he is constantly struggling to get to the points and even get past the Q1 cut in qualifying. Sainz came in his place. Calmly, the anticipation was felt, but he arrived. If we go back to the end of the Italian GP, Albon was 7° in the standings, ahead of Antonelli, with 70 points, while the Spaniard was 18° with only 16 points won (better only than Tsunoda, Colapinto and Doohan).
Then in Azerbaijan the turning point. Sainz achieved his first podium of the season, finishing third. Some might have thought it was a fortuitous result then, but then the Madrid native put in a series of great performances, culminating in his second podium of the season, which came last Sunday in Qatar. Third place in Doha marks his definitive recovery and takes him to ninth place in the world championship, just 9 points behind teammate Albon, who instead, in the last 7 weekends, has obtained only 3 points (all obtained in the Austin Sprint).
Carlos has managed to adapt to the team and now, if he can sustain a great race in Abu Dhabi too, he could have the chance to overtake his teammate in the standings.
The differences with Hamilton
Unfortunately, we can't say the same thing about Hamilton. Lewis, on the other hand, has never managed to become one with the car, and furthermore, unlike Sainz, who achieved two podiums with Williams, the Briton, driving the Ferrari, has not yet achieved his goal.
The difference was certainly caused by a different automotive development process. Williams slowly improved from race to race, and once the updates were complete, the team and driver focused on how to fully exploit the car's potential, allowing Carlos to find himself in the cockpit as well.
Ferrari should have applied the same process used at Grove. Instead, for some reason, the disruption of updates has led to greater destabilization that is giving rise to the action we are all "forced" to admire and judge on the track.
Hamilton could also be criticized, but given the difficulties facing Leclerc, a Ferrari driver for seven years now, whose abilities certainly cannot be questioned by his latest results in 2025 (he still took pole and podiums this year), we believe the problem concerns the team more generally in this specific case.
Ultimately, Sainz may also think his move to Williams didn't go so badly after all.
Cover photo: X, Williams; internal photo: X, Ferrari; X, Ferrari
Read also in italian language: Ha atteso, ma ne è valsa la pena. L’amaro confronto Sainz-Hamilton
All the news, photos, weather, session times and times from the Abu Dhabi GP 2025
