After the Grand Prix of China information had been leaked about whether Carlos Sainz was using last year’s Williams chassis for his races, something that gave an explanation for the poor results of the Madrid driver in Australia and China. However, James Vowles, team boss, has come out to deny this information.
Doubts over Williams’ performance
The performance of Williams has been an unknown factor during these months until the championship has started. After being one of the worst teams last season, the tests in Bahrain showed a step forward that was hard to believe, especially with Carlos Sainz, who set the fastest time on all three days of practice.
In the race, Williams confirmed that he is in a position to fight for the middle of the F1 grid, but Carlos Sainz’s results have been below expectations. The Madrid driver managed to score his first point in the last Grand Prix, but thanks to the disqualifications of Pierre Gasly and the two Ferraris, his level was clearly inferior to that of Alex Albon, who was not in the running.
Hence the doubts (and the leaks) about a difference in chassis between the Spanish driver and the Thai driver.
Vowles denies differences in the material
In the face of the alleged reports that Carlos Sainz is using last year’s chassis, James Vowles has come forward to deny this information, making it clear that the two drivers are using the same car and clarifying that yes, the base of the chassis is last year’s, but only the base, because they didn’t want to make one from scratch, but it is the same for both drivers.
“Alex and Carlos use exactly the same material. The same chassis, the same front wings, the same gearboxes, everything is the same, they have the same specification,” said James Vowles.
“The question was, is Carlos using the 2024 chassis? Let me explain. Both drivers are using an evolution of last year’s chassis, evolved in the same way. In the last year of the regulations, we tried to efficiently evolve the previous year’s chassis and not start from scratch,” explained Vowles.
Why the 2024 chassis base is used
All the F1 teams have squeezed the most out of the current cars, which is logical as we are in the last year of the current regulations, and all the teams have one eye on next year’s development, where they will all be starting from scratch and every second and euro that can be saved for this season will be a benefit for the next.
And Williams is no exception: the reason for choosing to update the previous chassis and not make a new one is threefold: time, economy and the performance of last year’s chassis, and this allows us to allocate that to the evolution of next season.
“It’s not a financial issue, although clearly we are all fighting against cost constraints. It allows us to optimize and focus on 2026,“ said Vowles.
“We knew there was potential in the chassis. As a result, we have moved up the grid and I think there is even more performance to be extracted from the package we have right now.” “I think a number of teams have done something similar, not all of them, but most of them,” said Vowles.
With these statements, Williams denies that Carlos Sainz is competing at a disadvantage with Alexander Albon and confirms that the two use the same car, with the same parts and the same materials. And despite Carlos Sainz’s bad start, they have no doubt that they will soon see the best version of the Madrid driver and that he will be key to the team’s aspirations.