The hidden vice of the Williams FW47 keeps Sainz awake: “It’s something very big that we can’t find”
The almost two-thirds of the season that have already passed have shown that the Williams FW47 is a car with certain limitations. The bad thing is that these have been repeating for years and the team still hasn’t found the source of them.
Although Williams has made great progress, moving from second to last position in 2024 to provisional fifth this season, the FW47 is still a car with some weak points that prevent it from going further.
Throughout the championship, both Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon have acknowledged that the car struggles in long and linked corners, as it becomes unstable and unpredictable. This makes it a less competitive car on circuits like Barcelona, Silverstone, or Hungaroring, where these types of turns are abundant.
Moreover, the Williams is a car that struggles to get the tires to their optimal moment in qualifying, which this year has hindered its drivers in maximizing results on Sundays.
“I adapt and I can be fast, although not at the level of doing something magical”
Carlos Sainz continues searching
One of the main objectives of Williams and Carlos Sainz for this year is to identify the source of the main weak points of the FW47. Not with the intention of solving it immediately, but to prevent the 2026 car from inheriting it.
“We are in the process of identifying why this car has those weaknesses. Where is it on the aerodynamic map? Where is it in the suspensions, in the settings? What is in these things or in the car's tools, where is the hidden aspect that makes the car have such peculiar weaknesses that are so extreme?”, questions Carlos Sainz.
“In Hungary you are almost a second off the pole position of a Ferrari, but then in Miami and Imola we were faster than them”, he adds, aware of the great ups and downs that the car brings depending on the circuit.
“So it must be something very big that we are not understanding or finding. While we design next year’s car, we are trying to understand what is wrong with this car and its predecessors, because the 22, 23, and 24 also had it. What has been intrinsic to a Williams car that always gives it this relative weakness in competition?”
Fast despite the car
Regardless of whether Williams finds the source of the problem, this year’s car will not shake it off. And that forces Carlos Sainz to make do with what he has, no matter how much it doesn’t fit his driving preferences.
“The car has some weaknesses that I can’t avoid or I can’t adjust a setup to get rid of them,” laments the Madrid driver. “And you need to drive the car in a very particular way to make a fast lap, the best possible lap time, and it doesn’t particularly fit my driving style in that sense,” the Madrid driver begins to explain.
“But I know that even with those weaknesses I can be fast. I have been fast from the start in Bahrain. I adapt and I can be fast. Not at the level of maybe doing something magical with the car, because I still lack a bit of feel and experience with the car, but fast enough,” concludes Sainz.
Fuente: Motorsportweek.com
