Williams Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz says the team is currently faster only than Cadillac, while team-mate Alexander Albon has criticised the excessive number of blue flags the team faced during the Dutch Grand Prix.
Williams made a steady start to F1’s new era, scoring 11 points in the opening six rounds and sitting eighth in the constructors’ championship after the Monaco Grand Prix. However, Sainz finished only 12th at the following race in Barcelona, and neither Williams driver has since managed a result better than 15th. The team has also struggled to progress beyond Q1 in qualifying.
At Zandvoort, Albon narrowly reached Q2 in both qualifying sessions, while both Aston Martin cars were eliminated early. Fernando Alonso then delivered an impressive one-stop strategy to finish ninth in Sunday’s race, as Albon and Sainz slipped towards the back of the field.
“We are pretty much where we expected, which is towards the back,” Williams’ Spaniard lamented. “We are only quicker than Cadillac at the moment. You saw the Astons in race pace, they are a different league right now. So we couldn’t fight them. We couldn’t fight anyone, really.”
“You can’t imagine in the middle of the race how many blue flags you get,” Albon added. “I literally mean that every other lap is a blue flag.
“When we pit too early on that first stint, we come out behind a group of midfield cars that we were racing. They all boxed to miss all the blue flags. But because of us pitting early, we had no choice but to take the blue flags. It’s like you get dirtier every lap to cars that you’re not even trying to race, you’re in the marbles. The ones that did box in front of you to miss the blue flags, they’ve now got new tyres, and they’re catching up to three or four seconds a lap because of the blue flags. So, within five laps, the cars that just pitted in front of you are already behind you.”
Williams struggles with blue-flag traffic
Albon made those comments before reviewing the race and its data. He was primarily referring to Gabriel Bortoleto, who made his second of three pit stops on lap 34 while running directly behind the Anglo-Thai driver and approaching the point at which the leaders would lap him.
The Audi driver caught Albon just eight laps later, leaving the Williams driver repeatedly dealing with blue flags and traffic from cars he was not directly racing.
Neither Williams driver expects the team to challenge for points at the upcoming races in Monza and Baku, despite both circuits being considered potentially suitable for the Mercedes-powered FW48.
“If you look at the last five races, this is where we’ve been for the last five races. It is where we are,” said Sainz, who scored a podium finish in Azerbaijan last year.
“We’ve had a very tough weekend on my side with some consistency of the parts, which haven’t allowed me to set up the car correctly for the race. We have to learn from it. There will be some interesting data points to go through as a team with the struggles that I’ve had. We will be able to, for sure, conclude on them and probably help us to understand better in the future.”
Asked specifically about Monza, Albon added: “It’s always a good track for us. Low [downforce], not much combined cornering, so that tends to suit our car. We’ve got the best power unit on the grid, so it should help us. But I’m not expecting points.”
Williams sits ninth in the constructors’ standings with 11 points. Audi is ahead on 16 points, while Aston Martin is behind on three.