Carlos Sainz has “work to do” to extract soft tyre pace on Williams F1 debut
The Spaniard was not satisfied with his one-lap pace on the first day of running in Melbourne
Carlos Sainz believes he has “work to do” to extract the full potential of Williams’ 2025 Formula 1 car on soft tyres and secure a Q3 berth in qualifying.
Sainz made a strong start to his maiden F1 weekend with Williams by posting the second-fastest time in opening practice for the Australian Grand Prix, but he dropped back to 11th in the more-representative FP2 session on Friday afternoon.
The Spaniard’s best time of 1m17.302s left him over eight tenths off the pace set by his former Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, while more worryingly he ended up behind midfield rivals Yuki Tsunoda, Isack Hadjar (both Racing Bulls), Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin).
While the 30-year-old was happy with his overall performance in practice, he feels it is crucial for him to improve his pace over a single lap on the red-marked soft compound.
He explained that he had already identified this area as a weak point during pre-season testing in Bahrain last month.
“In FP2, we didn't manage to find performance on softs, which is something we need to look into going into tomorrow as quali obviously on softs is going to be the main focus,” he told the official F1 website.
“So if we manage to extract some potential on soft tyres we could be competitive. The field is extremely tight, VCARB was doing some very last laps also - a bit out of nowhere.
He added: “It's what I said in an interview in the Bahrain test, we have to unlock the potential of the soft tyre, it's the key about this car.
“It's what I don't know yet how to do, and today proves it. I was very quick on mediums, and also very competitive in FP1.
“But as soon as everyone turned up in FP2 and I went to find the lap times on softs, I clearly struggled to find lap times on that compound.
“Tomorrow we will have four or five sets in quali, hopefully that will give me a chance to unlock it. but in that sense this is where [there is] all the work to do.”
Sainz was the fastest midfield driver over long runs on medium tyres, but there was a clear gulf in performance between Williams and F1’s big four teams - McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
Sainz joined Williams in 2025 after four seasons at Ferrari during which he scored four grand prix victories and as such is having to accept his new reality at the British outfit.
“Also, [on] high-fuel you can see there is quite a clear step from ourselves and maybe Ferraris and McLarens, and maybe Mercedes and Red Bull, but hopefully we are not too far and we can keep fighting in the midfield.
“Like I said, they can do some very competitive lap times and it can be tricky. Long run, less happy, soft [tyre], less happy, but in all a very positive day.”
