Carlos Sainz has conceded that he is going into his initial races with Williams in 2025 “a bit lost” due to the restricted pre-season testing available to the drivers in Formula 1.
Sainz has appeared to sustain a positive start to his time with Williams as he ended the sole pre-season test in Bahrain with the quickest time in the much-improved FW47.
However, the Spaniard revealed there were several test items he didn’t get the chance to trial in his one-and-a-half-days in the car before the season-opening race in Australia.
That inspired him to express that the current rule on testing “upsets” him as he implored that there should be an option to trade time in the simulator for outings at actual tracks.
Sainz, who is no stranger to changing sides, has admitted that he will embark upon his first qualifying session with Williams unsure how to extract the maximum from the car.
Asked how the 2025 Williams car compares to previous cars he has driven, Sainz told select media including Motorsport Week: “There’s just never a good car, bad car.
“It’s just different trade-offs that you just need to take out all your skills and tools and say, ‘OK, this comes quite naturally in this car, but this other thing doesn’t’.
“And I now need to focus on that.
“The reality is that while I was pushing yesterday, I don’t know where to find the last two-tenths.
“I’m going to go into the first races not knowing where the last bit of performance of the car is.
“I was a bit lost, not knowing whether I need to push more the entries with this car or more the minimum speeds, or I need to focus more on the exits.
“This you only discover when you put five sets of Softs in qualifying and you kind of end up finding out where the lap time comes.
“I feel like everyone that changes teams, unfortunately, with only one day and a half of testing, only discovers this in the first few races.”
Sainz sees advantage to those who adapt quickest
Sainz isn’t alone, however, as the Lewis Hamilton deal that cost him his drive with Ferrari triggered a shake-up that has seen all but two teams revise their driver line-ups.
With 2025 poised to be the closest season in recent times, Sainz has acknowledged that those who adapt the quickest could gain a sizeable advantage over their rivals.
“Five, six teams within two, three-tenths,” he highlighted. “It’s changing teams, but it’s the same for the guys at the top with Kimi [Antonelli at Mercedes] and Lewis.
“It’s four teams fighting for the last three-tenths [at the front].
“And for sure, changing teams there has an effect, especially at the beginning.
“Then it’s your job as a driver to make that process as seamless as possible and not cost yourself and the team a lot of positions and points.
“But it’s what it comes with changing drivers, changing teams. It’s normal. One and a half days of testing is not enough for us to understand everything new.
“Everything is new when you change teams.”
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