Alexander Albon does not see Carlos Sainz’s problems as dramatically as that and thinks that the Spaniard can help Williams to improve the car.
How much longer will it take for Carlos Sainz to settle in at Williams? The Spaniard had a difficult start to the season and is currently unable to keep up with teammate Alexander Albon, even though team principal James Vowles wanted a driver who could finally race on equal terms with the Thai driver.
But the reality is even more sobering: Albon has won every qualifying and race duel this season so far (see the overview of the duels). While he has already scored 18 points, Sainz has just one point to his name – because three cars in front of him were disqualified in China.
However, Albon himself does not believe that his teammate’s problems are really as big as they are written up from the outside. “I think Carlos understands the car very well. He knows the limits of the car very well,” the Williams driver emphasizes ahead of the fourth race of the season in Bahrain.
Sainz himself had admitted that he still needs a few races to really adjust to the FW47 because he was used to a different driving style from Ferrari. For Albon, however, these are not necessarily bad things.
Is Sainz getting Ferrari DNA in the Williams?
“It’s interesting to talk to Carlos about things like this because the habits he has acquired are not necessarily bad habits from his Ferrari days,” he says. ”On the contrary, they are good habits, and he is now seeing if we can transfer some of them to our car.”
Because there is still a certain DNA in the Williams that needs to be mastered. “At the moment there are some corners where we simply can’t do anything. He may have to adapt to a different driving style than he is used to,” says Albon. But: in the long term, the car should be faster as a result.
“I think we as a team are very good at taking everything on board and understanding what he says. Maybe it’s still difficult to implement all of this for this year, but for next year we could then prioritize to have a better car in certain areas,” he says.
At least he and Sainz are speaking “the same language” when it comes to where the car needs to be improved.
Albon: Field much closer than before
But Albon would like to mention one more thing in this context: “I think many people don’t appreciate how close it is now,” he says. “In the past, if you were thinking of half a tenth of a second, it was almost a guarantee that you would be right next to your team-mate in qualifying. Today, half a tenth can mean two rows of the grid apart.”
Sainz was 0.053 seconds behind Albon in Q2 at Suzuka. While this meant he was stuck in twelfth place, Albon made it into Q3 and put the Williams in ninth place, giving him a much better starting position.
“I hardly ever see teammates standing next to each other in qualifying these days. It’s all much more scattered – and I think it’s just because everything has become so close. That’s great for us, but it also means that there’s even more pressure on us drivers – which I’m enjoying,” said the Thai.
How good is Albon now?
At least Albon had emphasized before Sainz was signed that he was looking forward to a strong opponent, having completely dominated his teammates in recent years.
However, Nicholas Latifi and Logan Sargeant were not exactly considered top drivers in Formula 1 either, so there were always question marks about whether Albon is really that good or whether he only looks so strong alongside these drivers.
The arrival of Sainz should answer the questions, but so far he has also been left behind. “I like to measure myself against someone who is very fast – maybe he hasn’t quite got it together every weekend, but on paper he is definitely fast,” emphasizes Albon. “For me, this is a really exciting challenge.”
“That’s not to say that I haven’t noticed the comments from the last few years that weren’t so great for me – but I think now I can finally show people what I’m really made of,” he says, expecting Sainz to soon become a strong opponent as well.
“I think Carlos is getting better and better at this, but he was really fast in the test and I’m sure it won’t be any different this weekend.”
