Carlos Sainz explains in detail what he needs to get back to his Ferrari level

he had become a regular on podiums, pole positions and even victories, yet Carlos Sainz is going through the start of the 2025 season in relative discretion, which says nothing about his immense track record and his driving skills, one of the best on the grid. Since his arrival at Williams In January, the Madrilenian struggled in terms of performance, struggling to get into the rhythm of his teammate Alex Albon.

The Thai driver continues the momentum of his first three seasons at Williams by assuming his role as leader, far ahead of his teammate: with 18 points, he is clearly better than Carlos Sainz, whose 10th place in China, thanks to Leclerc's disqualifications, gasly et Hamilton, is so far the only entry in the points of the year. The son of Carlos Sainz Sr is struggling, but he had prepared himself to need time to adapt by discovering a new team. “If you were expecting to see the best of Carlos Sainz at Williams from the third race in a new car, then you don’t understand the sport very well or, at least, you don’t understand how long it can take for a driver to really be 100% with a car, to understand where the last tenths, the last little performance gains are.”, asserts the number 55 before the Bahrain Grand Prix.

“If you look at the first three races, I think I haven’t managed to have a complete weekend yet. In China, I had a bit of a mixed weekend for a couple of reasons, but honestly, in Australia and Suzuka, I was pretty quick. Especially considering I’m still new to this car. Being within a tenth of Alex (Albon) in qualifying is a good starting point for the season. Now I just need to make sure I make fewer mistakes in my weekend execution and keep improving my speed, because I think we can still improve a bit on that. But we’re not as far along as it looks. I feel like we just need to put everything together over the course of a weekend and it will come.”

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Carlos Sainz needs to "put everything together"

What separates Carlos Sainz from Alex Albon at the moment is mainly in qualifying, where the Thai driver showed his greater knowledge of the car by putting in a string of top-flight performances. The former driver Ferrari He is often within striking distance of his teammate, but without ever managing to overtake him. On tracks where it was very difficult to overtake, Sainz's eliminations in Q2 weighed heavily on his chances of scoring points. "You have to go through these more difficult weekends to understand, go back, and correct. It takes time. There are 24 races. We've done three.", tempers the Spaniard. “Obviously, everyone expected me to be at that level already, which is a good thing: it means that there are high expectations of me. But I was the first to say, after the Bahrain tests where I finished first, that I was still nowhere near what I want to achieve with this car. I immediately calmed expectations, knowing that the first quarter of the season was going to be difficult. And with a guy like Alex who pushes very hard and does a great job, it obviously takes me a little time to get up to that level. But I'm calm, I'm doing my job, and it will come.”

Carlos Sainz left Ferrari and Charles Leclerc to join Williams. @DPPI

By joining Williams, Carlos Sainz also ended a four-year stint at Ferrari, where he had acquired habits and reflexes that are not always easy to erase. The former driver Renault et McLaren must also deal with the power unit Mercedes, which he discovered after having driven 97 Grand Prix with that of Renault (at Toro Rosso, Renault and McLaren) and 109 with that of Ferrari (at Toro Rosso and Ferrari). The differences between the SF-24 of the Scuderia with which he won the Australian and Mexican Grands Prix last year are therefore legion.

Ferrari's Sainz must forget his habits

"It's a bit too technical to explain at a press conference.", assures Sainz when discussing the differences between the two single-seaters. "You'd need the data and an onboard camera for me to be able to show you concretely. The Ferrari had a particular balance, a specific development direction after 3 or 4 years working on this car. It conditions you to brake in a certain way, to turn, to release the brakes at a certain moment... and it becomes a reflex after three years. When you get into another car, especially in qualifying under pressure, and you go looking for the last tenths, you fall back on these automatisms."

"It's not really that you have to unlearn these gestures, because they also make me very fast in certain turns, but you have to remember that in other types of turns, you shouldn't do them.", explains the Iberian. "That's why it's almost impossible to perform well in the first three races with a new car, especially when you're driving for the first time with the soft tyres and low fuel in completely different conditions."

Ahead of his fourth Grand Prix with Williams, Carlos Sainz knows he needs to "put everything together in one weekend" to build confidence and help his team score valuable points in the fight for fifth place in the Constructors' Championship. The Grove-based team currently holds that position, four points ahead of Haas and nine on Aston MartinIn Bahrain, Williams starts with a slight advantage after the promise seen during the pre-season tests where Carlos Sainz finished with the best time of the three days of running.

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