Carlos Sainz has revealed his fears that Red Bull has stolen a march on the grid after its ominous showing on the first day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Missing the Barcelona test, Sainz and Williams arrived in Bahrain on the back-foot and aimed to claw back some of the damage done to its pre-season campaign.
The new FW48 took to the track without issue and completed its programme, racking up an impressive 77 laps in the morning session.
With team-mate Alex Albon taking over duties for the afternoon, Sainz analysed his own data while looking at rivals’ lap times and setups.
He confirmed his belief that Red Bull, running its new power unit in collaboration with Ford has stolen a march on the rest of the grid, praising its reliability.
“It’s still extremely early days, but if I would have to judge by the GPS data of yesterday, right now it is true that whatever Red Bull Ford powertrains were doing yesterday was a clear step ahead of anyone else, not only a small step but a clear step, and it was mighty impressive.” he said to media on day two including Motorsport Week.
“If they manage to turn up to Race 1 with a completely new set of regulations, with a completely new engine, new people, and turn up to be the fastest and most reliable engine, you will have to take your hat off to them and say what they’ve come up with, because at least what they were showing yesterday was very impressive.”
Regulation uncertainty for Carlos Sainz and Williams?
Detailing the trade off between battery usage and car setup, Carlos Sainz once again praised Red Bull, highlighting this could be an area of strength for the team.
He confirmed the operating window for him is not where he would ideally have it placed.
“Yes, although I think the key of these regulations is not going to be separating both, but integrating both of them together, he said.
“And so far from what I could see yesterday, it seems like Red Bull have done exactly that, without having to give the driver a compromise, just give them, this is how you drive, and this is how you want to drive, and I’m going to allow you to do what you want with the recovery that I want,” he said.
“And the future of these regulations, if I have to look ahead from two or three years from now, I think it’s going to be integrating the two, and not having to give the choice to the driver, or having to tell the driver to adapt, and integrating both in the same package.
“And that’s what we ended up doing with the previous set of regulations, and even though now it’s extremely early days, and it’s normal that both things are a bit separate, for me the future, if I would be on Borg’s team, would be to not allow to do a choice, we need to make it happen.”
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