Sainz: ‘Williams’ nightmare’

Last Updated on July 5 2025, 1:01 pm

Three years after his maiden Formula 1 victory, Carlos Sainz returned to Silverstone, but his post-Ferrari era has been more turbulent than a fairytale. Now at the wheel of a much more temperamental Williams, the Spaniard found himself languishing in 16th place during Friday’s free practice, over 1.3 seconds adrift of the leaders, and feeling as though every gust of British wind were out to get him.

Three years ago, he lifted the winner’s trophy in front of a raucous Silverstone crowd. In 2025, however, he was being waved at by stewards, albeit with double yellows.

 

Wind Tunnel on Wheels

“It was extremely difficult,” Sainz declared, wearing the weary expression of a man who knows that Silverstone isn’t supposed to feel like a survival course.

“We all had our good and bad moments out there. When you have a headwind, the car feels great. When you have a tailwind, it’s a nightmare.”

Sainz wasn’t speaking in metaphors, either. The FW47 was genuinely struggling in the ever-shifting gusts of Northamptonshire’s unpredictable weather. At times, the car appeared to have the aerodynamic properties of a family-sized garden shed, particularly through high-speed sections where it lost stability.

“You’re just trying to keep the car on track and be consistent,” Sainz continued, adding that Friday’s programme focused more on ‘reliability issues’ — a coded phrase for ‘we still can’t get through a session without holding our breath’.

 

A Luffield Spin and a Stewards’ Stern Word

If the stopwatch wasn’t damning enough, the visuals confirmed just how difficult the day had been. At one point, Sainz performed an ungainly pirouette exiting Luffield — an impromptu audition for next season’s Strictly Come Spinning. He ended up sideways across the track, blocking the path of Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas, who was forced to swerve left to avoid him.

“I was just trying to get back on track as safely as possible,” Sainz later explained.

“In these cars, you have zero visibility. You can’t see anything from the sides. You’re sitting there like a turtle on a traffic island, just hoping not to get flattened.”

To be fair to the Spaniard, the onboard footage looked more dramatic than the actual outcome, although try telling that to Hülkenberg, who was one sharp turn away from collecting a Williams souvenir on his bargeboard.

According to the stewards, Sainz did glance to his right, but due to the constraints of the HANS device and the sizeable headrests surrounding his new cockpit, the manoeuvre was akin to asking someone wearing a neck brace and a sofa cushion to check their blind spot.

In their post-session statement, the stewards acknowledged that the double-waved yellows had reduced the risk somewhat, but also pointed out that Sainz had misjudged his position on the track and had assumed that other vehicles might be passing behind him. In F1, the words ‘assumed’ and ‘position’ rarely go together well.

The net result: an official caution. Not a penalty or a reprimand, but rather the FIA’s equivalent of a finger wag.

 

Soft tyres, hard lessons

While the team avoided any formal punishment, the day was a clear reminder of the fine margins facing Williams in their bid to remain midfield rather than backmarker. Sainz, who arrived at Grove as a marquee signing following his departure from Ferrari, is painfully aware of just how much effort is required to tame this latest incarnation of the FW chassis.

“We ran through the programme. That was the most important thing,’ he said in a statement that could apply to both Friday and perhaps Williams” entire season thus far.

“Hopefully, we can now focus more on performance tomorrow and find something else there.”

However, that ‘something else’ will likely require divine intervention or a significant drop in ambient temperature. Williams continues to struggle with soft tyre performance, particularly in warm conditions — though in the UK, relying on cold weather is usually a safer bet than relying on lap times.

“I think cooler temperatures would help us,” said Sainz. ‘The softs are always difficult for us to get working. Then there’s the wind: if you’re lucky, you can have a great lap, but if you’re not, it can be pretty difficult.”

 

Hope and a bit of tailwind

As qualifying approaches, Sainz and Williams are caught between damage limitation and optimistic experimentation. The car, for all its effort and blue paint, still struggles to inspire confidence. The driver, despite his experience and past victories, is forced to perform minor miracles due to major limitations.

Yet there is a glimmer of hope in Sainz’s words. He suggests that, with the right conditions, the FW47 could be coaxed into performing well — at least for a decent lap on Saturday.

And if not, well, at least it’s not raining. Yet.

After all, this is Silverstone. The only thing more unpredictable than the weather here is the performance of a wind-swept Williams with a driver who once dominated this circuit when his car did more steering than sliding.