Carlos Sainz’s initial feedback after completing first laps in FW47
Carlos Sainz drives first laps in Williams' 2025 F1 car.
Carlos Sainz has driven the first laps in Williams’ new F1 car for the 2025 season.
Williams took the wraps off their 2025 challenger - the FW47 - at a cold Silverstone on Friday morning to become the second team to reveal their latest F1 machinery.
One day after McLaren’s 2025 car broke cover at the British Grand Prix venue, Williams unveiled their FW47 in a one-off livery in a live-streamed launch event.
Williams are also carrying out an initial shakedown test at Silverstone before the team heads to Bahrain with the car for pre-season testing later this month.
It was their big signing Sainz who was the first to get behind the wheel of the new car.
Sainz, who has joined Williams after making way for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, completed a single installation lap before returning to the garage.
And his initial feedback was encouraging as the Spaniard reported that “everything went fine” on his brief run.
“All good so far, all good,” he was heard telling his Williams team on the pit wall. “All good, just really cold in here. All good.”
FW47 in action for the first time 💙💨 pic.twitter.com/Ynj3KgovN4
— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) February 14, 2025
Speaking to Williams ambassador and Sky Sports F1 pundit Jenson Button when he got out of the car, Sainz added: “Everything went fine, which is good news, an install lap of a newly-born car is always a bit tricky.
“First, I need to give the feedback. There are two or three things that I felt that could be improved from my feeling inside the cockpit, so that’s something to talk about.
“Then we will get the car ready to run on slicks and start pushing little by little.”
Sainz and teammate Alex Albon will both get more time behind the wheel of the FW47 on Friday.
Williams team principal James Vowles described the FW47 as an “evolution” of its predecessor.
“It’s definitely an evolution of last year’s car, we’ve had a reasonable winter but it’s always difficult to know. The field is closing in together, you don’t know how good a winter others have had,” he said.
“When you look at the car you see a 1,000 detail of evolution. There is literally no bolt that was left where it was.”
The British squad finished ninth in the constructors’ championship last term.
Williams - along with F1’s other nine team - will reveal their 2025 livery at the F1-75 season launch event at London’s O2 arena on Tuesday.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
