Williams’ Carlos Sainz has revealed how an experiment three months in the making contributed to his strong Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix qualifying performance.
In his debut season with Williams, Sainz has showcased his brilliance on several occasions. However, the Grove-based squad saw several issues arise in its FW47 following the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier this year.
Following Sainz’s “very solid” qualifying performance, it was revealed the team had been experimenting ahead of the race at the Losail International Circuit.
The Spaniard credited his team, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to translate their glimpses of brilliance into consistent pace, allowing Sainz and Albon to fight among their direct rivals.
“Yeah, we took another step in that direction in quali, and it seemed to, again, do some steps in the right direction,” Sainz told Sky Sports F1.
“Overall, honestly just happy with the weekend so far, we’ve been very solid, a point in the Sprint, position better now in quali and a top seven going into the race.”
Sainz’s strong showing was yet another milestone with Williams. Importantly, the qualifying performance was built upon the Spaniards’ ability to push the limits.
Following qualifying, Sainz felt he reached the limit of the FW47, producing a sequence of laps that underscored his confidence with the newly tested setup.
“Three good laps in quali, I hit 20.2 in Q2, and then I felt like I just couldn’t get any quicker than 20.2, felt like that was the limit of the car,” Sainz told media, including Motorsport Week.
“In Q3 even with that scare of the plastic and damaging the bodywork and having to repair, I don’t know if I was carrying any damage or not. But after that scare, managing to hit the 20.2 and being P7, I take it and we’re very strong.”
What was the Sainz-Williams Qatar experiment?
The 31-year-old revealed after qualifying that the idea for his Qatar set-up had come months earlier. Following a difficult outing in Budapest, Sainz remained adamant that the team could and would improve. Sainz stressed to his team that the “off-weekend” should be a learning experience rather than a pursuit of short-term performance gains.
“Yeah, I’ve been pushing hard since Budapest,” Sainz explained.
“We had a very off weekend at this kind of track corner, to say let’s make sure we use this year as a learning and try something in Qatar, because in Qatar in theory we should suffer, it should be a very tricky weekend for us.”
Rather than shy away from a circuit known for exposing weaknesses, Sainz embraced the challenge. The Spaniard brought his own simulator-tested ideas to the table, while the team contributed additional concepts.
“So let’s make sure we put a plan together, we test,” he said.
“I had some ideas in the simulator that I wanted to test. The team came up with other ideas, we put them all together, we went to the simulator, we tested the car, and that gave us what we believe was maybe potentially a good baseline to start the weekend and give it a bit of a go.”
From Friday’s free practice session, the progress was clear. Sainz emphasised that the new experiment not only gave them a solid qualifying performance. It also helped them understand the FW47 in greater detail.
“And right from the get-go it was working well this weekend and it has given us a good understanding, good learnings and confidence because as a team it’s important to do these sort of tests and get them to work.”
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