Williams faces a critical challenge with Carlos Sainz, as growing concerns around his performance could push him into a last-chance scenario at the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix, making this race a decisive moment for both driver and team to turn their fortunes around.

Carlos Sainz will strive to bounce back at the Canadian Grand Prix after matching his worst finish as a Williams driver to date with P14 at home in the Spanish Grand Prix.

The 30-year-old joined Williams in the 2025 F1 season after Ferrari released Sainz to create a space for Lewis Hamilton’s arrival. After a slow start, he had also started to find his feet in Grove with Sainz scoring points in four successive Grand Prix before heading home to Spain.

But the difficulties that Williams have faced at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in recent years continued this term and saw Sainz fail to score a point at home for the first time. The Madrid native had scored points in each of his 10 previous visits to Montmelo before 2025.

Now, Sainz heads to the Canadian GP this week keen to respond after only securing a 14th-place finish in the Spanish GP. It matched his worst finish for Williams to date of P14 in the Japanese Grand Prix, and snapped Sainz’s scoring streak featuring two P8s, a P9 and a P10.

Photo by Clive Rose – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

Williams ‘fear’ Carlos Sainz is running out of time for a top-five finish ahead of the Canadian GP

The P8 finishes that Sainz achieved in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix are his best results with Williams so far. Yet a better finish may be on the cards at the Canadian GP, as the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve’s heavy braking zones suit Williams’s FW47.

However, according to AS, the Canadian GP could even mark a last-chance saloon for Sainz to join Williams teammate Alex Albon in securing a top-five finish all year. Albon has scored 42 of the Grove team’s 54 points this term, helped by his P5s in Australia, Miami and Imola.

Williams will target another top-five result at the Canadian GP, as Albon and Sainz can take advantage of Montreal’s slow corners. But the ‘fear’ in Grove is that while Williams can put P5 as their target this weekend, Sainz is running out of time to maximise the FW47’s speed.

Sainz needed four rounds to get up to speed with Williams’ car after leaving Ferrari for the Grove crew this year. He has also suffered from strategic mistakes and the ‘fear’ in Grove is that Aston Martin and Sauber could now overtake Williams as they develop their 2025 cars.

Williams fear Aston Martin and Sauber surpassing them before Carlos Sainz has shone

Williams are fully focused on the 2026 F1 regulations and will only drip-feed upgrades to the FW47, if at all. So, Sainz may face his last chance to score a top-five finish in 2025 this week at the Canadian GP as Aston Martin and Sauber both showed in Spain their improved speed.

Fernando Alonso scored the Aston Martin driver’s first points of 2025 in the Spanish GP with P9 after qualifying in P10. But the story of the day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was Nico Hulkenberg used Sauber’s upgrades to take his best finish in six years with P5 in Spain.

Sauber have frustrated Red Bull recently, as well, with the Milton Keynes natives annoyed by the progress that the Swiss crew have made with their pit stop speed and consistency since Red Bull’s former sporting director Jonathan Wheatley took over as Sauber’s team principal.