Sainz qualified a solid P8 in Bahrain
It’s not been a straightforward start to his Williams Formula 1 team career for Carlos Sainz as the Spaniard has had to adjust to a very different car and power unit.
In Bahrain things have started to come together, and having been as high as seventh in Q2 he secured eighth on the grid, behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and directly ahead of his Ferrari replacement Lewis Hamilton.
However he insists that he’s not getting too carried away, and that there’s plenty more still to come.
It certainly didn’t hurt that he’d tested (and been fast) in Bahrain in February, although he lost valuable track time when he had to hand his car to Luke Browning for FP1.
Solid progress through FP2 and FP3, with some experimentation along the way, paid off in qualifying.
“I think a bit of everything for sure,” he said when I asked if familiarity with the track had helped. “I’m testing different things every weekend to try and unlock a bit more performance.
“And this weekend, I again drove a bit of a different car on Friday, tested some things learned, put them together for today, and seems like we did a little bit of a step in the right direction.
“It doesn’t mean that today we suddenly discovered everything, and we are back to my usual self of extracting the maximum out of the car, but at least step by step. Today we did a step in the right direction, and we need to keep our head down.
“This is still not where I want to be, P8. I want a bit more. But progress with the team, progress with myself, with my driving, with the setup, and we keep going.”
Sainz agreed that Bahrain was the best start to a race weekend he’s had thus far in 2025.
“I just felt like I did some clean laps in quali, which is hasn’t been the case up until now,” he said.
“I’ve always done mistakes, never put a lap together, really. I know when I put things together, I have the pace. It’s just understanding the car, where to push, where not to push, where to find the lap time.
“And today, I definitely did some steps in the right direction. As I said, not where I want to be still – you look at Gasly [starting P4]. But at the same time, we managed to qualify in front of a Red Bull and a Ferrari.
“So it must be that we’re doing things in the in the right way, and now we need to keep investigating things, testing things. Not missing FP1 in Jeddah could help also to try some things. So let’s see.”
In essence it’s mainly about understanding where the limits of the car are, and what works or doesn’t work. It’s largely a question of track time.
“Definitely more confident and more under control,” he said. “More than confident, it’s knowing where I was going to go and risk it and find the lap time, and knowing where I was not going to push, because I know the car cannot take what I can or what I want to do.
“So just stay in discipline, with my driving, with my tools, with my setups, with my front wings, with my things to know where to extract the lap time. Still as I said, a lot of things to learn, and many more qualis like this to do, to understand many other things. But at least today, we did a step.”
Sainz insists that he knew it would take time toget properly up to speed.
“Honestly, I wasn’t feeling too stressed about it,” he said. “I know where I stand, I know far I am from my limit, from the limit of the car.
“Suzuka was more a matter of putting the lap together, which I didn’t do. I know this will come, the more laps I do with this car.
“Obviously, China was a bit of a shock to the system, but at the same time, I shrugged it off pretty quickly after, with Suzuka and here.
“Honestly, as I said, I wasn’t feeling too stressed about it. I just know I need to stick to my plan, do small steps at a time, and it will come, because I know I have the speed and I have a good team around me.”
Adam Cooper F1 