Voules: Williams gets more than I paid for Sainz.

      James Voules, speaking about Carlos Sainz's contribution to the work of Williams, said that working with an experienced Spanish driver gives the team more than he paid for it.

      When it became known that Ferrari had signed a contract with Lewis Hamilton, the head of Williams Racing made every effort to get Sainz, and as a result, the parties signed multi-year agreements.

      Carlos has not fully adapted to the FW47 car yet, but Voules is confident that he is already bringing a lot of benefits to the team.

      "I think we're getting more than I paid for him," James said, "and that's why I say this: there are two ways to evaluate a rider's performance. Of course, the first one is that you see a racer working behind the wheel of a car. Carlos is making progress in this regard, and I am confident for him, because he will reach the required level of speed soon.

      But it takes time to adapt – our car is very different in character from the Ferrari. And now about the second method: I am really very impressed with how it works with our experts in aerodynamics, with our engineers, with almost everyone in our team, helping to find those missing thousandths of a second.

      I believe that everyone can come up with ideas that help us progress, including Carlos. He fits in perfectly with our team, and political games are completely alien to him. He just wants our cars to speed up. Alex Albon wants the same thing.… You have to learn faster than your rivals and develop faster than them. This is the foundation for the success of any racing team.

      That's why I wanted to invite Carlos, and he more than meets my expectations. I am very happy with the way we started the season, because the level of competition in the championship is very high now. The days when the gaps were big are in the past, and now it's counting by the milliseconds.

      And that's what really pleases me: I've already said that our main focus is on preparing for 2026 – nevertheless, we were able to create a car that allowed us to rise to higher positions. We fight for points every weekend, and that's exactly the goal we set for ourselves.

      However, there are a number of things that need to be worked on to make Carlos feel comfortable driving the FW47. I think when we achieve this for both drivers, Williams will become a real force to be reckoned with by all the teams in the middle of the peloton. Otherwise, I'm quite happy that we were able to get everything we could in the first races of the season."