Carlos Sainz's Challenging Williams F1 Season: Unpacking His Struggles
Summary
Carlos Sainz's debut Williams F1 season disappoints with only 16 points, trailing Alex Albon. His struggles involve car issues, tire problems, and frequent race incidents, not adaptation. Consistency is key against Albon's strong form.
Why it matters:Carlos Sainz's first Williams season disappoints despite the team's dramatic rise to P5 in constructors. Sainz has 16 points (7 top-10s), while Alex Albon boasts 70 points and four P5 finishes, with a 0.104% qualifying edge.### The big picture:Sainz denies adaptation issues; he states, "It's just getting results and putting things together that has been a struggle."### The details:* Car limitations: Williams struggles with 'combination' braking/turning and long corners due to yaw limits, clashing with Sainz's understeer style.* Tyre warm-up: Chronic Williams tyre warm-up issues often compromise race weekends for both drivers.* Incident prone (11/19 races impacted):* Own errors: Australia (safety car crash), Bahrain (Antonelli collision), Miami (sprint chicane crash).* External/Team: Japan (pitwall penalty), Spain (lap 1 damage), Canada (impeded qualy), Austria (DNS), Silverstone (Leclerc error).* Judgement calls: Zandvoort/Monza clashes, where Sainz arguably took high risks.### What's next:Sainz feels his underlying pace is good but lacks "clean, consistent weekends." He expects fewer incidents. However, consistently beating Alex Albon's high-level performance remains his defining challenge at Williams.
Original Article :https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/why-carlos-sainz-first-williams-f1-season-goi...
