Sainz: A bit puzzled to be honest

Sainz joined Williams from Ferrari at the end of the 2024 Formula 1 season and was supposed to be leading the team's renaissance taking place on James Vowles' watch.

But the highly rated Spaniard has struggled so far as Albon delivered points for Williams in the two opening races of the season in Australia and China.

That was the case over the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, where Albon outqualified and outraced Sainz in every session.

Speaking after the race last Sunday, Sainz said: "We got it right with the strategy, unfortunately the pace of the car was...we were just not there, struggling with the front tyres again.

"A bit puzzled to be honest, not happy because ever since I jumped in this car I was very quick in testing so I don’t know where the pace has gone for this weekend. At least we have a good 10 days to analyze what went wrong and put together a plan to come back stronger in Japan," he explained.

Sainz had changed several teams in F1, driving for Toro Rosso, Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, and now Williams, so he is no stranger to having to learn to work in a new environment, and his debut with Williams seemed seamless at the start, but the pace doesn't seem to be there.

He commented: "One of the strangest swings of performance I have had in my career, going from naturally super quick in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, even at the beginning of Australia and then suddenly the pace has just seemed to fall away from me."

With changes to car setup allowed after the Sprint Race and before qualifying for the Grand Prix, Williams changes a lot with their car which seemed to work for Albon but not for Sainz.

"We did a lot of set-up changes that on my side of the garage," Sainz said. "What Alex and I did were pretty similar, on his side [the car] seemed to respond well to the front graining and he was a lot stronger today, on my side it didn’t seem to help much."

Sainz finished the race in 13th but was promoted to tenth after the disqualification of Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and Pierre Gasly. Albon was ninth and was promoted to seventh.