Bad day for Sainz: he has to grit his teeth
This is the current reality of Williams. After the initial problems this year, the team started off and the result is what it is: a car, as I said. Carlos Sainz to MD on Thursday, which has been created with a failed concept. These weapons are what the Spaniard has to fight before some developments arrive in Baku that can improve things somewhat. It doesn’t give him a chance to fight for Q2.
And as it has been repeating for weeks, the team must now focus on getting the 2027 car right.
But to this we must add more complications. Carlos Sainz suffered balance problems in Free Practice 1 (the only practice sessions in this sprint format) and suffered several track exits in that FP1 in which he damaged several aerodynamic components. He had no replacement for them and had to face the sprint classification and the remainder of the weekend with non-optimal components in terms of load and performance. The perfect storm.
That prevented him from reaching the short classification with the necessary learning and, with what he could, he signed “two good laps”as Carlos said, but they only served to be 18th.
“I had a lot of problems in the morning”
“I had a lot of problems in the morning with the balance of the car and, unfortunately, I went off track several times. We damaged quite a few parts, a spoiler that was not new but good, so I couldn’t drive with the right components. And the ones we had to put on the car for the rest of the weekend are not the best in terms of downforce and performance, but it is what it is,” explained the Spaniard before the microphone of the official F1 television.
“We are a little tight on margin until we have the improvement in Baku and yes, unfortunately, The gravel on this circuit is quite aggressive and breaks many parts of the car’s aerodynamics, so we will try to learn as much as possible in the sprint and take advantage of the rest of the weekend,” he added.
“Obviously, in SQ1 it’s about the first two laps and I didn’t get a proper reading in free practice, so it’s not like I could do two optimal laps because, in the end, you suffer from the lack of knowledge you have. But considering how little I did and how compromised my car is, I think I did two good laps,” he concluded.
