Carlos Sainz signed a multi-year deal with Williams earlier this year, after Ferrari dropped a bomb by signing seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in the beginning of the year.

The Team Principal of Williams, James Wolves, is very hopeful that Sainz might start his work early with the team during the post-season testing, traditionally taking place in Abu Dhabi.

“We still have to agree on terms with Ferrari, he’s under contract at Ferrari until the end of 2024,” quote Wolves RacingNews365.

“However, I do hope to see him in the car in Abu Dhabi.”

Last time Ferrari allowed their driver to do that was in 2018 with Kimi Raikkonen before his switch to Sauber.

Wolves also mentioned Sainz’s commercial value for the team but highlighted that the biggest benefit comes with the performance of the car.

“The real commercial benefit of all F1 teams, by the way, is just performance,” Vowles stated.

 “If you make your car quicker, or if you have drivers that push your car, or drivers pushing each other and pushing the car, that in turn provides you championship position and sponsorship income.

“That is the secret sauce of how to run a F1 team: fundamentally you treat it like a startup. You've got to put your finances into a driver, or two drivers, really, in the circumstance that you know will be pushing the team forward.

“It's not like you have immediately, overnight, the phone ringing and someone's offering you 20 million. That's not how it takes place, but it is part of the journey that makes its way through.

“What I can say is we have existing sponsors that we've been talking to for six months, and for them, it may or may not have been the extra trigger that pushes them across the line. But it's not that it's suddenly you take all your deals and you up them by a percentage fundamentally.”

At this moment Williams is stuck in ninth place in the Contructor’s Championship with only 6 points, losing 7 points to Alpine in eighth. The British stable is now mainly focusing on delivering a great car for Sainz next season and planning on using his full potential to score points consistently and potentially aim for podiums.