Carlos Sainz highlights 'no magic' in Williams plight

Carlos Sainz has pointed out how there will be "no magic, massive steps" to help Williams out of the difficult position it is in at the start of the F1 season.

After making rapid progress last year on its recovery back up the grid, the Grove-based squad has slipped back from the midfield, to the extent that escaping the clutches of Q1 is now a considerable undertaking.

After qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, where Sainz managed to get his FW48 into Q2, he underlined the "good progress" made to better the Q1 exits the team suffered across the previous round, at the Shanghai International Circuit.

When it was put to him that he may have been over-optimistic about his chances in qualifying, the Spanish driver flatly rejected the suggestion.

"No, I think I got it right," he said to the media, including RacingNews365, before elaborating: "China, we were four-tenths off Q2. Today, we managed to get into Q2, so I think we made good progress.

"On a personal level, another few strong laps in quali, in Q1 and Q2, which allowed us to, compared to China, take a couple of positions."

However, he was quick to dampen expectations for the race at Suzuka, adding: "But the reality is that tomorrow, I think, in race pace, as I said yesterday, we had a delta of half a second to the nearest car in the midfield.

"So I don't expect that we've improved half a second overnight. So I think it will be a long race tomorrow."

The four-time grand prix winner went on to explain the cause of Williams' lack of pace, pinpointing two key areas, including the well-covered excess weight of his car.

"It could be weight, it could be downforce," the 31-year-old said. I think it's a combination of the two, the reason why we struggle in the race. And we need to get rid of one and add the other one to the car. 

"I think as a team, if we do that exercise during the year, we will finish the year a lot more competitive than where we are right now.

"We need to chip away at it. In F1, there's no magic, massive steps. And this weekend, we seem to have done a small one. And we need to keep doing them, and see where we get to."

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