Carlos Sainz of the Williams team has expressed uncertainty about the team’s potential to continue its impressive performance at the Australian Grand Prix. The newly signed driver’s performance during the first practice in Melbourne turned heads, finishing second only to McLaren’s Landon Norris. However, Sainz feels that the team’s success hinges on their ability to harness something they are yet to fully understand.
In the second free practice (FP2), Sainz started strong, holding his own among the leaders. However, as the drivers transitioned from medium to soft tyres, he slid down to the 11th position. This, Sainz believes, underscores a crucial weakness – the inability to efficiently extract pace from the softest tyre compounds, a challenge he had previously hinted at during a test in Bahrain.
Despite his impressive speed on medium tyres and competitive showing in FP1, Sainz struggled to find the same pace on the softer compound. The upcoming qualifying session, where he’ll have access to four or five soft sets, could provide an opportunity for him to overcome this hurdle.
Echoing his concerns was teammate Alex Albon, who pointed out the unusual lack of progress made on the softer tyres. Albon, who matched Sainz’s time in FP2, believes that the team needs to quickly understand and rectify this issue before the qualifying round. He further stated that on medium tyres, making it into the top 10 in the third qualifying session (Q3) would be an achievable feat. However, the altered soft tyres from last year present a new challenge that the team is striving to comprehend.
Williams wasn’t the only team grappling with this issue. Mercedes’ George Russell also struggled to find extra speed when switching to the soft tyre. Despite making impressive strides on the medium and hard tyres, Russell found little to no improvement with the softer compound. The team is now working on extracting the most from the tyres and understanding the reasons behind this disparity.
Pirelli, Formula 1’s tyre supplier, offered no clear explanation as to why some teams were struggling more than others with the soft tyres. Simone Berra, Pirelli’s chief engineer, suggested that the issue might be related to the teams’ unfamiliarity with the new-specification soft tyre, especially at Albert Park, a track notorious for its challenging tyre temperatures.
According to Berra, the teams are learning with each lap, trying to understand and adjust the tyres to the optimal working window. He also hinted that the teams might need to tweak the balance of their cars and their lap preparation to find the peak of grip.
Despite the difficulties with the soft tyre, Sainz believes that the top four teams hold the upper hand, particularly in long runs. He expects a tough competition from Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, and Red Bull but remains hopeful that Williams can continue to contend with the midfield. He also acknowledged the tight competition field, noting that any team capable of delivering a good lap could potentially make it into the top 10.
