Carlos Sainz has admitted he was “puzzled” by an uninspiring Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix performance as his acclimatisation to Williams has proved difficult.
Sainz picked up his first point for Williams in Shanghai, but it came to him in fortuitous circumstances.
Without both Ferraris and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly getting disqualified ahead of him, and the two Racing Bulls committing to a two-stop, Sainz could well have found himself in 15th.
It wasn’t the performance the Spaniard would have hoped for after his Lap 1 DNF in Australia, and he was off the pace of Williams team-mate Alex Albon throughout the weekend in China.
Albon qualified ninth and 10th for the Sprint and Grand Prix, respectively, with Sainz languishing behind the Anglo-Thai driver in 13th and 15th places.
In the races there were 12 and 20-second gaps respectively between the duo as Albon scored six points in the main event.
Post-race, Sainz admitted that he’s having trouble finding performance at his new team.
“We got it right with the strategy, unfortunately the pace of the car was…we were just not there, struggling with the front tyres again,” Sainz said.
“A bit puzzled to be honest, not happy because ever since I jumped in this car I was very quick in testing so I don’t know where the pace has gone for this weekend.
“At least we have a good 10 days to analyse what went wrong and put together a plan to come back stronger in Japan.”
Sainz shocked by ‘strange’ performance swing
Sainz’s F1 talent is undisputed as a four-time GP winner with Ferrari.
Moreover, a veteran of 10 F1 seasons thus far, Sainz has already driven for four teams before joining Williams.
After finding his feet with his previous employers, Sainz is hitting issues he’s yet to see so far in his career, especially after his first few outings at Williams showed positive signs, including setting the fastest time of pre-season testing.
“One of the strangest swings of performance I have had in my career, going from naturally super quick in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, even at the beginning of Australia and then suddenly the pace has just seemed to fall away from me,” he said.
“We did a lot of set-up changes that on my side of the garage, what Alex and I did were pretty similar, on his side [the car] seemed to respond well to the front graining and he was a lot stronger today, on my side it didn’t seem to help much.”
Despite showing strong signs in testing, Sainz hinted that he’d been unable to find the limit of his Williams FW47, lamenting the scarcity of pre-season preparation allowed in F1.
“I’m going to go into the first races not knowing where the last bit of performance of the car is,” he said last month.
“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.”
Perhaps now Sainz is learning where he needs to improve to marry his talents to the latest Williams challenger.
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