Carlos Sainz hasn’t been shining at Williams as fans may have expected—or hoped. Here’s what the Spaniard had to say ahead of the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix.
Starting at 1:30 PM tomorrow, April 11, Formula 1 returns to the Sakhir circuit for the opening session of the fourth round of this season—also the venue for the three-day pre-season testing back in late February, where Carlos Sainz was officially seen in a Williams car for the first time, following his outing at the Yas Marina end-of-season test. Back then, the Spaniard immediately placed himself near the top of the timesheets, sparking hopes that the results he achieved with Ferrari could be replicated under James Vowles’ leadership at Williams. However, things haven’t quite gone that way.
In the usual pre-race press conference, the former Ferrari number 55—responding to a question from Sky Sports UK journalist David Croft—outlined the main challenges he’s faced so far behind the wheel of the FW47, Williams’ 2025 car, across the first three races in Australia, China, and Japan. Carlos Sainz hasn’t had the smoothest start to the 2025 season, considering the DNF in Melbourne, the impeding penalty for blocking Lewis Hamilton, and a fine for arriving late to the national anthem at Suzuka.
“Ferrari had certain car balance, a certain direction that we followed after three or four years of developing that car that required you to brake in a certain manner, turn in a certain manner, release the brake in a certain place—which you fall into a trap of after three years of muscle memory of doing everything that way. And when you jump into a different car, and especially under pressure in quali, you try and find the last two tenths of the car. You fall into your muscle memory because that’s the muscle memory that you have from three years. ” Carlos explained.
He continued: “It’s not that you have to unlearn those habits, because they actually make you fast in other types of corners too. But you do have to remind yourself not to do them in certain specific types of corners. That’s why it’s almost impossible to expect someone to be immediately quick in the first three races with a new car—when you’re running Soft tyres and low fuel for the first time during those weekends—on completely different tracks, in different conditions, with different tarmac—and you have to relearn a lot of things “.
“As I said, considering how new everything is, being within a tenth in qualifying of a driver like Alex in Australia and on a technical track like Suzuka isn’t bad at all. Now I just need to put the whole weekend together, avoid penalties, and hit the right lap time in Q2—because for us now, Q2 is like the lap of your life, with the whole field within two tenths. If you don’t nail that lap in Q2, your weekend is over—you start 12th instead of 9th, and then you can’t overtake at Suzuka or in the midfield. So it’s all these small details that need to come together, ” he concluded.
Photo: Atlassian Williams Racing, Carlos Sainz.
