Carlos Sainz identifies key to 'unlock' Williams after promising start

Carlos Sainz believes unlocking the soft Pirelli tyres will prove key to maintaining a strong start to the season with his new Williams team.

Having set the fastest time of testing after moving from Ferrari, Sainz looked set to post the quickest time of the first free practice session at the Australian Grand Prix before Lando Norris shaded him at the death. 

In FP2, on the softer tyres, Sainz slipped to 10th quickest, but still showed flashes of pace, as he urged his new team to focus on trying to understand where the FW47 was struggling on the softest Pirelli rubber.

"It was a positive Friday for us, especially FP1, which was very positive, but in FP2, we didn't manage to find performance on the softs, which is something we need to look at going into tomorrow as qualifying is on the softs," Sainz said.

"If we manage to unlock some potential on the soft tyre, we could be competitve, but the field is extremely tight, I saw the [Racing Bulls] doing some very quick laps out of nowhere, so it feels like if [someone] can put a good lap together, anyone can be in Q3.

"The interest to unlock potential on the soft tyre is key about this car, and it is what I don't know how to do yet.

"Today proves it, I was very quick in FP1 and as soon as everyone turned it up in FP2, I went to find lap-time on the soft, I clearly struggled to find lap-time on that compound.

"Tomorrow, we will have four of five sets of softs in quali, so we have more chances to unlock it, but that is where the work is. 

"On high fuel. there is quite a clear step from ourselves and the Ferraris, McLarens, Mercedes and Red Bull, but hopefully, we are not too far and we can keep fighting in the midfield."