Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard Formula 1 driver, is grappling with the transition to Williams. The recent Chinese Grand Prix weekend has highlighted these struggles as Sainz confessed to ‘not feeling at home’ with his new team yet. Having moved from Ferrari to Williams for the F1 2025 season, Sainz’s journey has been fraught with challenges, the most recent one being his inability to complete even a single lap at the Australian Grand Prix.
Sainz’s performance in China starkly contrasted his promising speed during pre-season testing and the Australian Grand Prix. This was the season’s inaugural sprint weekend where practice sessions are condensed to just an hour before the critical track sessions commence. For Sainz, adapting to this new format and his new team has not been smooth sailing.
During the practice session, Sainz’s performance was underwhelming, managing only a 15th place time. His teammate, Alex Albon, outshone him by securing the seventh position. The sprint qualifying saw Albon continue his impressive streak, securing a ninth-place start while Sainz was eliminated in SQ2, lining up in the 13th position.
While Sainz’s performance was not disastrous, he acknowledged that he had a long way to go before he could feel symbiotic with his new car. Post the qualifying rounds, Sainz revealed, “I’ve struggled all day with the balance, and both sessions have been quite tough. In sprint quali, we had a few issues, including a weird feeling with the seat that we’ll look into, but overall it comes down to me still not feeling at home in the car.”
Sainz faced a peculiar issue during the qualifying, where his seat seemed to loosen, causing a distraction. He further admitted, “We were struggling with some balance problems, especially in Q2, not knowing exactly where to find the lap time, and a bit of overdriving. I still have to learn and understand many things about it, and I know, with more mileage, it will come.”
Despite the challenges, Sainz maintains a positive outlook, hoping to improve during the upcoming races. His 13th place sprint start still puts him ahead of Sauber, Racing Bulls, Alpine, a Haas, and even a Red Bull. However, the process of settling into a new team and familiarizing himself with a new car is a matter of time.
Alex Albon, too, conceded that there is ‘work to do,’ despite his promising qualifying position. The journey for both the drivers with their new team is evidently still in the early stages, filled with learning curves and hurdles to overcome. But as Sainz optimistically stated, “Hopefully tomorrow we can put everything together and improve today’s result for Sunday.”
