Since making the switch to Williams for F1 2025 , Carlos Sainz has found himself in a patchy run of form.
He started the season worse than expected, then seemed to rediscover his speed – and now, once again, it feels like Sainz is facing difficulties.
What’s going on with Carlos Sainz at Williams?
What’s really behind these struggles, and how might Sainz overcome them? Let’s look at what the telemetry data tells us.
When Sainz joined Williams, many expected him to bring stability and consistently extract the maximum from the car.
Unfortunately, the reality has been rather different, as we’ve seen ups and downs in form throughout the season.
After a disappointing start, Sainz did find his feet relatively quickly, with points finishes becoming both expected and frequent.
But that progress stalled: a poor race in Barcelona was followed by an average one in Canada, and then a mechanical failure before the race even began in Austria.
Carlos Sainz vs Alex Albon: Williams head-to-head scores for F1 2025
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
Looking at the results from the first two free practice sessions at Silverstone, it seems unlikely we’ll see Williams or Sainz among the points scorers this weekend.
The first – and probably most significant – factor is the car itself, which we know isn’t quite where Williams’ drivers would like it to be.
This season has shown that the FW47 performs better on circuits with heavy braking zones, short corners and long straights.
What really doesn’t suit the car are long, fast corners.
The data backs this up, with Williams’ best results so far coming in Miami and Imola — tracks that play to these strengths.
Conversely, the only races where Williams have failed to score points (aside from Austria, where both drivers retired) were Barcelona and Bahrain – proper driver circuits with plenty of fast, sweeping corners.
Then there’s Sainz himself, who’s consistently lagged behind his team-mate. The points gap tells its own story: Albon sits on 42 points, while Sainz has just 13. There’s clearly an underlying reason for this disparity.
If we compare the fastest laps from FP2 at Silverstone, the data might offer some clues.
Where is Carlos Sainz losing out to Alex Albon?
The places where Sainz loses the most time are the fast corners – particularly the famous Copse corner and the high-speed section from Turn 10 through to Turn 13.
The difference in apex speed through Copse is striking.
The telemetry also shows Sainz applying a slight touch of brake at the apex, whereas Albon doesn’t brake at all.
Across this section and the fast bends beyond Turn 9, Sainz drops around three tenths.
Add to that small mistakes at Turn 4 and the final chicane (Turns 16 and 17) and Sainz ends up 0.319 seconds adrift of Albon overall.
The reason for Sainz’s struggles likely lies in a mix of both factors.
He’s clearly still adjusting to the limits of his new car, which aren’t where they were with his previous machine.
Albon, with far more experience in this type of car, seems to have the upper hand – especially on tracks where Williams can’t rely on their usual strengths.
We also saw evidence of this in FP2 when, on his third lap, Sainz was a little too eager on the throttle exiting a quick corner, lost the rear and nearly collected Lewis Hamilton as he spun. Thankfully, both escaped without damage.
On race pace, things look slightly better for Sainz.
In FP2, he ran a long stint on soft tyres, as did Hadjar and Hamilton — though that makes it hard to draw solid comparisons.
Hamilton was, as expected, a lot quicker (though his run was much shorter), while Sainz at least had the measure of Hadjar’s Racing Bulls car.
Compared to Albon – who ran on mediums – Sainz’s times weren’t bad at all.
Still, we have to treat this data with caution; we don’t know the fuel loads or the specific aims of these runs.
And unless something unexpected like a safety car happens, it’s unlikely soft tyres will play a role on Sunday.
In the end, it’s clear that Sainz’s adaptation to the Williams is still ongoing – as strange as that may sound at this stage of the season.
More on Williams drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon from PlanetF1.com
But as we’ve seen with Hamilton this year, adjusting to a car with completely different characteristics can be a long and difficult process.
We also have to consider the state of Williams itself.
The team isn’t at its strongest right now organisationally and both Sainz and Albon have retired from three races each, which is far from ideal.
That said, the overall step forward compared to last season is clear.
Both the team and Sainz probably just need a bit more time.
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