Carlos Sainz had a solid debut qualifying session with Williams at the Australian GP, securing a place in Q3 and starting in tenth position. While he acknowledged that his session wasn’t perfect, he was thrilled with the team’s overall performance.
A strong start for Williams
Speaking to the media, he was asked whether he was pleased with the Qualifying results. Sainz replied, “Well, first of all, very happy for the team, for Alex, even for myself, you know, to be in Q3 with my first volley with Williams.”
“You would have told us three months ago that we would have one car, P6, and the other P10, we would have definitely taken it. So, congrats to the whole team and to everyone involved.”
Despite his satisfaction with the team’s progress, Sainz admitted that his qualifying session was challenging. He struggled to extract the most from the soft tyres in the final two practice sessions and in qualifying, finding himself reacting to the car rather than being proactive in his approach.
“At the same time, obviously, myself, I had a bit of a scrappy qualifying. Honestly, since FP2 and FP3, on the soft tyres, I’ve been struggling to know where to find the lap time,” he explained.
“With the outlap, with the setup of the car, I felt like I was always one step behind. I was trailing and reacting to the circumstances rather than being a bit of a step ahead, but it’s completely normal. And in a tight field, you’re going to pay, and today I paid the price a bit in Q3. But, as I said, it’s only a matter of time before it starts coming and putting together better laps. I can’t wait.”
Adapting to possible wet conditions
With rain expected on race day, Sainz revealed that Williams had not made any setup adjustments for wet conditions and that he would be driving the car in the rain for the first time during the race itself.
“No, I don’t think anyone has really tuned the car for the wet. Nowadays, you don’t do anything for the wet. You just put in the tyres and see how it goes,” Sainz said.
“From my side, I’ve done nothing. Tomorrow will be my first lap ever on a Williams in the wet. And it will be in a race, so there will be a steep learning curve. The same way that in quali was a huge learning curve for me, because I put sets of tyres on and I tried to understand how to find lap time with the car.”
Sainz on adapting to a new car
Sainz also emphasised that his difficulties in qualifying were not unexpected, as adapting to a new car and team takes time. He noted that other drivers who changed teams over the winter faced similar struggles in qualifying.
“Yeah, that’s why I know it sounds maybe like I was playing it down, but it’s exactly what ended up happening,” he said.
“But not only to me, everyone who’s changed teams, everyone who is a bit more new to the situation, you can see everyone’s trailing a bit in qualifying, because you’re always one step behind. And when you know a car very well, you can always be one step ahead. And that’s the difference between being one or two tenths in front and being one or two tenths behind.”
Despite his qualifying challenges, Sainz remains confident that he will continue to improve as he becomes more comfortable with the Williams FW46.
“I feel like this is just the beginning. I’m just going to get better at it. And I’m just going to keep improving. Massive learning curve for me and margin of improvement, which the P10 in quali will win. It’s just good news for me.”
With a possible wet race on the horizon, Sainz will face a new challenge, after Qualifying, in his first Australian GP with Williams. However, given his experience on track, he could be one to watch as he continues to adapt to his new environment.
Williams has shown significant progress, and while Sainz may still be adjusting, the team’s strong showing in Qualifying indicates that they are on an upward trajectory for the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Feature Image Credit: Williams Racing
