Carlos Sainz: “We are four or five positions better than expected. I achieved two great laps”

“Very good job. Very good lap. And in Q1, too. Impressive”James Vowles, Williams Team Principal, told him on the radio. Carlos Sainz, with a car with which he had been at the bottom of the table throughout the weekend, managed to make an unexpected leap forward in qualifying and nailed it with his two laps in Q1 and Q2 to finish 13th, well above what was expected on a track where ‘aero’ performance is key.

For this reason, Carlos Sainz, speaking to ‘DAZN’, after qualifying, was very satisfied with the step taken through the detailed analysis of his car, which allowed him to find, together with his engineers, a car configuration with which he could improve in ‘qualy’. However, Carlos is clear that this Sunday, if the favorites in the fight for points do not fail, he will have a very difficult time hoping to score in Sepang.

“Qualifying leaves me with a very good feeling. It had been a very complicated weekend so far. Returning to a downforce circuit has exposed the limitations we still have in the car even with the evolutions we have made in Baku”he commented.

“We spent the weekend only being faster than the Cadillacs, so getting to qualifying and sneaking in front of so many cars doing 13th… well, if the Baku lap sounded a lot because it was Q3, today’s laps have been even better and are worth being 13th, which is a very good starting position for the race because we were very, very far behind all weekend,” he added on ‘DAZN’.

“In the end, pick and shovel, trying to understand the car on all types of circuits, trying to find a very different setting to Baku here that seems to have helped me find a little time in qualifying, so I’m happy with the progress made with the engineers and the fact of being 3, 4 or 5 positions ahead of what was expected. So happy, really,” he revealed.

His Williams, without load and degradation in the race

“The only thing missing now is downforce, which penalizes us on a circuit like this. I hope that next year we will do better because honestly it is a circuit where we couldn’t do worse. If you tell me: ‘Design a bad circuit for Williams’. “This is one of the worst next to Budapest and we are suffering a lot.”he said about his car.

“Yes, we have saved wheels for tomorrow to have as much flexibility as possible, so let’s wait for things to go well, but to score points tomorrow we need others to fail”he commented when asked about a race in which a lot of tire degradation is expected.

Tire management will be crucial and it can change everything in an event that could see two stops, but also possible red flags due to the probability of rain.