Carlos Sainz has gotten off to a slow start with Williams ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix with Alex Albon scoring 18 of the team’s 19 points across the first three rounds.
Fortune also favoured Sainz to see the Spaniard score his first – and to date only – point as a Williams driver in the Chinese Grand Prix. He finished the race in just 13th, yet inherited P10 as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton plus Pierre Gasly of Alpine were disqualified.
Albon also benefitted from Ferrari’s first-ever double disqualification in China as he inherited P7 after taking the chequered flag in P9. It followed the London-born Thai sealing fifth in the Australian Grand Prix as Sainz crashed and preceded a P9 finish in the Japanese Grand Prix.
Sainz crashed under safety car conditions in Australia during the opening lap of his debut for Williams, having been axed by Ferrari to create space for Hamilton. The Spaniard would only finish the Japanese GP in P14, too, with a 19.6s gap to the points and 33.762s behind Albon.
Alex Albon feels Carlos Sainz needs to ‘adapt’ his driving style to suit Williams’ 2025 F1 car
Martin Brundle expected Sainz and Albon being teammates would make life ‘uncomfortable’ for Williams given the 30-year-old arrived in Grove as a four-time Grand Prix winner and as a six-time pole sitter. But 29-year-old Albon, whose career-best is P3, has led Williams so far.
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Albon also thinks Sainz might have to ‘adapt’ his driving style to secure a strong result at this week’s Bahrain GP as Williams just ‘can’t do anything’ in some corners. The Madrid native is aware of his potential issues, as Sainz is ‘reverse-engineering’ his cornering style at Williams.
“At the moment, there are some corners where we simply can’t do anything,” Albon said, via Motorsport-Total. “He may have to adapt to a different driving style than he’s used to.”
Carlos Sainz could face a difficult Bahrain Grand Prix given his problems with Williams’ car
Sainz is changing his cornering approach this term as the strengths of Williams’ car are very different to where the Ferraris he raced from 2021-24 excelled. But it is causing a slow start to his season, to the extent Guenther Steiner is stunned by Sainz’s poor form with Williams.
Williams will hope the Spaniard can get to grips with their FW47 soon as cornering is not his only issue, too. Sainz struggled with Williams’ brakes at the Japanese GP, which could create problems for him in Bahrain this week with the key overtaking points being at Turns 1 and 4.
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