Carlos Sainz has revealed a season-long obstacle encountered in his Williams car that he has “never had before” in his Formula 1 career.
The Spaniard qualified in ninth place for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix, which was seen as somewhat of a disappointment, given his fourth-place finish in FP3 earlier on Saturday.
But his result was a positively stark contrast to that of team-mate Alex Albon, who finished bottom in Q2, condemning him to a 15th-place start on the tight and tricky Zandvoort circuit.
Albon’s issues stemmed from what is a significantly narrow window that the Grove-based squad‘s FW47 has in terms of the optimum of its tyres.
The Anglo-Thai driver was in a queue during Q2 for what is, due to its issues, too long a time, which left him struggling on his final push lap, causing him to miss out on Q3.
“Yeah, it was basically that,” Albon confirmed to media including Motorsport Week, before explaining further the problem in detail.
“I think in every lap we’ve done this weekend, we’ve been on track, we’ve been in the top 10 most of the time. We were quite confident being in the top 10 in Q1 and we were quite confident being in the top 10 in Q2 run one.
“And then basically when we came out of the garage, I must have been waiting for about two-and-a-half minutes to get out of the pit lane, and then by the time we got out of the pit lane, all the people that came out of the pit lane before were on their push laps.
“So then you do a slow-out lap, because you have to let all the cars pass who are on the push lap.
“By the time that happens, you go into Turn 1 and the tyres are absolutely nowhere. You cannot do anything honestly, I would say.”
Albon vented his anger on the radio after his dumping from Q2, but further revealed afterwards how the issue can leave Williams significantly at a disadvantage, showing sympathy with the team as the strategy is hard to nail.
“We know we’re on the back foot in terms of our window to get the tyres to work is narrower than other teams I think you see that Carlos was struggling in Q1,” he added.
“I was OK in Q1, and then we’ve seen it in so many tracks we’ve gone to this year so far, if we don’t get our clean out lap, we’re nowhere I think our out lap is normally around this track so far this weekend It’s been about 10-15 seconds a lap quicker than the people around us.
“And my Q2 run 2 out lap was maybe 20-25 seconds slower than my normal out lap. So you can imagine that normally doesn’t go well when you go into Turn 1.
“Just frustrating because it doesn’t make it easy for us in many ways, because obviously I’m angry in the moment, but as a strategist, when your window is a bit smaller than everyone else’s, to get the clean air and to get the right space on track is very difficult.
“And I feel for us, I think we basically need to figure out the tyres first. That’s the main issue and then everything else will come easier, that’s where the frustration is.”
Williams tyre problem an alien anomaly for Sainz
Sainz, after bagging a top 10 start, corroborated Albon’s take on the issue, saying that the sensitivity the Williams has is totally alien to him, despite all his years of experience.
“Yeah, and you also need to know this as a driver, that’s why I didn’t expect this car to be so sensitive to these kind of things,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“I’ve never had it before in my life, in my career, but it is something that I’ve been learning through the year. I’m trying to adapt and trying to understand the best way I can.
“This is why you see me sometimes in Q1, P19 or Alex in Q1, two drivers that normally we are very closely matched on track, we’re always within a tenth of each other.
“Then suddenly you see a guy in Q3 and the other one in Q1 and vice versa, it’s because it’s really, really tough for us. It’s also up to us as a team to get on top of these sensitivities, these issues and get it right when it matters like we did today in Q2 and Q3.”
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