Carlos Sainz has revealed that there is a “small balance problem” with the 2025 Williams Formula 1 car that will be hard to address amid the team’s attention on 2026.
Sainz has experienced a subdued start to his time with Williams as he has accrued a single point in the opening four rounds compared to team-mate Alex Albon’s 18.
However, the Spaniard pieced together his most convincing weekend with the team to date at the last race in Bahrain as he progressed into Q3 and qualified in eighth.
But Sainz’s desire to convert that into a welcome points return was undone when contact with Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull at Turn 2 created a seismic hole in his sidepod.
The damage cost Sainz “40-50 points of load” and marked a blemish on a positive weekend up to that point as it culminated in him sustaining a premature retirement.
Having also fought Lewis Hamilton, his successor at Ferrari, earlier in the race, Sainz has recognised that he should have avoided racing those with quicker packages.
“The race was more difficult because maybe I chose to fight against cars I shouldn’t have fought against,” Sainz acknowledged.
“Although I hadn’t fought them for a long time and I was comfortable to fight.
“With hindsight, I should have picked myself up in that fight and focused on scoring points because they are very important.
“In Bahrain it’s easy to overtake; those cars were going to pass me sooner or later on track or by strategy, so that was my mistake.
“I should have focused on scoring the couple of points that were available because that is the objective now.
“There will be times to fight against the rest on other occasions.”
Earlier in the Bahrain weekend, Sainz disregarded criticism as he reiterated that it will take him an extensive period to unlearn the distinct habits he adopted at Ferrari.
Sainz’s comments succeeded Albon, at Williams since 2022, explaining how compromises have to be made with the set-up on the FW47 to exploit its narrow window.
But Sainz has now divulged that there is a nominal balance limitation with the car that he will be reliant on the team solving through set-up work rather than upgrades.
“There are still things to improve and fine-tune both in my driving and in the set-up of the car,” he expanded.
“We have a small balance problem that we are trying to solve with the tools we have, because with evolutions I don’t think there is a chance considering that we put all our efforts in 2026.
“(The issue) appears more in low and medium speed corners. If we improve it, the car has a lot of potential and so does the team.
“If we unlock what part of the car does this, I’m 100 per cent sure that big steps forward can be made.
“But my experience tells me that it takes years of development and experience to know what can hold the car back.”
READ MORE – How Ferrari ‘habits’ are triggering Carlos Sainz struggles at Williams
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