F1 News
'Pleasantly surprised' Sainz reveals Williams is not far from top teams
Having left Ferrari at the end of 2024 to join Williams, Carlos Sainz has since completed his third day of on-track activity with the team, something that although he deems too little, has also given him hope for the future.
During Thursday's run at Bahrain it was Sainz aboard his FW47 who topped the time sheets, something he is however, unimpressed with. "You can manipulate your lap time by five seconds. So be one one tenth or two tenths ahead, it means nothing to us," said the new Williams driver to media including GPblog.
Williams has been firm on its desire to return to the top of F1, something Sainz does not seem to think is beyond the team lead by James Vowles.
'Williams not miles away from the top teams'
"Well, first of all, the car I drove in Abu Dhabi was not a bad car. I was, as I said many times, pleasantly surprised with what I found. As soon as I jumped in, I could push it and I could feel, obviously, where it lacks, but I could also feel some strengths compared to what I was used to. So if you just tell the midfield, last year where it ended, at least in a track like Abu Dhabi, it was not miles away from the top of the field." added Sainz.
Albeit the Spaniard has only driven Williams cars on three occasions, he already knows where the Grove-based team is lacking in comparisson to the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren. "Where that gap really opens is in the race runs. That's where the downforce and everything tends to make a big difference, and that's where we've or at least me with the team, I'm putting a lot of the focus in trying to improve the race performance in this car," concluded Sainz.
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