Carlos Sainz said he is still in his learning phase with Williams, but acknowledged his speed in pre-season testing “raised expectations a bit” around his early performance.

Sainz was the fastest of any driver in pre-season testing in Bahrain, and showed a turn of pace after driving for Williams in post-season in Abu Dhabi in December, but he has taken time to adjust to his new surroundings after leaving Ferrari.

Carlos Sainz highlights ‘raised expectations’ after early testing speed with Williams

While testing is famously a potentially unreliable barometer for true car and driver performance, Sainz set the fastest lap in Bahrain ahead of the new season.

Now having out-qualified Alex Albon for the first time in Bahrain, he is still yet to finish ahead of his new team-mate in race trim, but Sainz highlighted people were likely “getting excited” about his potential when looking at his speed in testing.

Having maintained all season so far he would need time to unlock his full speed with the FW47, he said he is not “far off” the benchmark Albon has been setting in the early rounds.

“I was expecting it to take some time to get up to speed with the car,” Sainz explained to Spanish broadcaster DAZN.

“What happened is that I was so fast in testing and in Abu Dhabi that it raised expectations a bit and everyone was getting excited about how quick I could be with the Williams car.

“To be fair, I felt confident in testing and in the first sessions in Australia but as soon as I started pushing the car to its limits, I guess my deficiencies and lack of understanding of the car became more exposed there in Australia, China especially, and in Japan.

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“I think things are not as bad as the results and the points tally suggest. I don’t think we are far off. It’s something that happens to everyone who changes teams.

“Obviously, the more experience and success you’ve had in your career, the more people expect you to perform right away and, in a way, it’s a good thing that people were expecting me to have pace straight away in Australia. But after testing I was the first to raise my hand and say: ‘I won’t be that fast and I need to go through a big learning and adaptation period’.

“It’s not the ideal situation because I wish I had more points, but at the same time, I look back and I think I knew this was going to happen. If it takes me three more races, then it takes three more races. The important thing is to get there and reach the level I want to be at.

“Every day I’m more aware of my capabilities as a driver, in things like what my strengths and weaknesses are, what I need to work more on, what I can bring from my past to make the team and myself faster.

“We’ve already improved in many areas where I believed the team was lacking. We’ve already identified some aspects where I can improve to fit better in this car. Some other things I still miss, I need to find and understand how they work in this team. Other things, we simply don’t have yet.

“2026 will be the big opportunity for Williams. 2025 has already been a big step forward. 2026 has to be the biggest one. We have a new simulator coming. The current one is not up to modern F1 standards.

“We’ll be able to understand everything better before the parts even reach the track. With the combination of all these changes, the people being hired, and the good energy and atmosphere in the team, I see the potential it has.

“I’m really enjoying working with Alex. He’s a great guy. But above all, he’s very fast and very talented. I think he’s driving at the best level of his career and has taken a step forward this year in the right direction.

“He’s executing very strong weekends. I trust I’ll get to that level once I get into rhythm.”

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