Carlos Sainz started from 15th position and finished 13th in the GP of China, overtaking both Racing Bulls and Stroll on the track, but lagging far behind his teammate Albon, who finished ninth and scored points. The Spaniard once again experienced problems with degradation and was unable to find the necessary speed in his Williams, although this time his pace was somewhat more competitive.
Sainz still does not fully understand the behavior of his car, which worked well in the preseason. The mismatch between his performance and that of his teammate continues to generate internal doubts. The Spaniard does not find in his FW47 the same sensations he had during the preseason tests in Bahrain.
“We will find something and for my part I will continue working and improving. It is only the second race out of 24 and this is not how it starts, it is how it ends. We are going to go for it. But first I have to analyze it, sit down with my engineers and take a calm look at it,” says Sainz.
On his race in Shanghai and the distance with respect to the points: “There was a moment when it seemed like they weren’t too far away, but then I gradually lost pace, like in the sprint. The set-up changes helped Alex’s car the most, they didn’t have as much effect on mine and I had a lot of degradation problems in the front axle. It‘s hard to understand why, I need a few days to analyze it and sit down with my engineers calmly to see what we’re missing. And yes, I’m a little surprised because if there’s one thing I felt in the Abu Dhabi and Bahrain tests is that I was very fast and it took me very little time to adapt to the car, but for some reason in Australia and China it hasn’t been like that”.
Saiz admits that his car’s performance has dropped this weekend. “Shanghai is probably one of the worst circuits for us, we’ll have to analyze why, but I am convinced that at the right level with this car I will be able to fight for many more things. We have to find that level and analyze why we have not been at the level I hope to be at.”
In fact, the graining of Saturday was rectified on Sunday: “I’m happy because the set-up changes we proposed went in the right direction and the car responded as we expected. Mainly on his part, I continued to have a lot of problems”.