Carlos Sainz: Alpine will be on the front row with a Mercedes or Ferrari engine

Carlos Sainz believes Alpine would have been on the front row in the Bahrain Grand Prix if the team was running a Mercedes Formula 1 engine.

The Williams driver made that comment after Pierre Gasly qualified his Alpine A525 fourth on the grid on Saturday, less than four-tenths off the pole-setting lap set by McLaren driver Oscar Piastri.

Sainz was particularly impressed by how rapid the Alpine was in medium-speed corners at the Bahrain International Circuit, comparing the car’s performance in sector two to the pacesetting McLaren MCL39.

He feels the only thing that is holding back the French team is the engine, with Gasly touching just 319km/h through the speed trap in Bahrain compared to the 317km/h recorded by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Alpine’s straight-line performance struggles are well documented, but the Renault brand cannot do anything to fix the issues because of an engine freeze that is in force until the end of the current season.

“I just think [the pecking order] is very track dependent and when you have the whole field in eight-tenths, [things change quite quickly,” Sainz told Sky TV.

“It's clear that we're going to go to tracks where the Alpine is gonna fly, tracks where the Williams [will fly]. Hopefully, we go to tracks where we are faster.

“What is clear for me is that the Alpine in the corners is impressive. I don't know if you guys have access to GPS data, but they managed to go as quickly as McLaren from Turn 6 to 11, so all this medium-high speed. So It's very, very impressive what they're able to do.

“This quali lap from Pierre [was very impressive]. They complain they have three-tenths [deficit] of engines.

“So if you put them on a Merc engine or a Ferrari engine, you have a car that is in the front row.

“At the same time, I managed to stay in front of [Lewis] Hamilton and [Yuki] Tsunoda, Ferrari and a Red Bull, so it shows just how tight everything is and how the small margins are extremely important.”

Strong showing from Williams

Sainz put together his most competitive performance as a Williams driver in Bahrain qualifying, progressing safely into Q3 before posting the eighth-quickest time.

While the Spaniard said this result is evidence of the progress he is making at his new team, he stressed that there is more to come from him this season.

“I wouldn't call it my first smooth operation with Williams. I would rather leave that for a good race and for a good quali,” he said in reference to his catchphrase.

“But at least today we've done some steps in the right direction. We've put together some clean laps, which is what I've been missing up until now.

“I think the speed has always not been too bad, it's just knowing exactly how to put laps together with this car, where to push, where not to push, what to do with all my tools in the steering wheel for each session, each track.

“We're getting there and today at least we showed a bit of progress.”