Carlos Sainz explains what has been holding back Williams ‘for years’

Carlos Sainz has instructed his Williams team it must fix a "fundamental" issue, he feels has been holding the team back 'for years.'

Sainz joined from Ferrari ahead of the current season, and has made a slow start to life alongside Alex Albon, but did make a breakthrough in qualifying in Bahrain, out-qualifying the Thai for the first time.

Williams has enjoyed a strong start to the season, scoring more points in four races than it did in the entire 2024 campaign, but Sainz believes a major problem with the cars has been "holding Williams back in the past few years."

Even though the team will be switching development focus to 2026 and the rules reset, Sainz feels it is important to keep trying to understand the current problem.

"Alex also feels it, and it is very obvious to both of us, but Alex is just used to it because he says it has been part of the DNA of the car for a long time," Sainz told media including RacingNews365 in Jeddah. 

"For me, it is a bit more of a new issue and I'm trying to get my driving and set-up around it, but as a team, it is fundamental that we improve this, because it might be the thing that has been holding Williams back in the past few years.

"We need to understand it, to try and move the car forwards and try to apply it to the next set of regulations, and there is a lot of work being done to understand it. 

"I want to make sure that even if we are not going to develop this car much, we are still working like we are going to develop this car and we're still working to make sure we understand what the strengths and weaknesses are. 

"Because even if we are not going to have much time in the wind-tunnel or in CFD to test things to try and change this underlying issue, we are at least doing everything in our power to understand where it is coming from so we can apply it to future cars.

"I'm being very pushy about that, and if we are not going to develop this car, we need to make sure we understand as many things as possible to apply things for next year."

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What is the nature of the Williams problem?

When asked exactly how the problem manifests itself, Sainz did not reveal much, beyond it being a medium and low speed performance issue.

"It appears a bit more in medium to low-speed corners, but any more than that, I'll have to ask JV (team principal James Vowles), if we can openly talk about it or not," Sainz added.

"Today, I'm not going to go into much detail, but then maybe as the year progresses, we can talk about it more.

"I have been very clear with the team, is that if we manage to improve this, there is a lot of potential in this car and team.

"If we manage to unlock what is doing this, I am 100% sure we can make very big steps, which is quite encouraging. 

"My experience tells me it takes years of development and of trial and error to find exactly what it could potentially be, holding us back, but it is something I find entertaining and it motivates me. 

"Because I feel like if I can help the team to understand and spot it in the data and in the wind-tunnel, there is a big step coming when we improve it."