Sainz "still not feeling at home" in Williams F1 car

The former Ferrari driver has struggled at the start of the 2025 F1 season since moving to Williams and will start behind team-mate Albon in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race

Carlos Sainz admits he still does not feel at home in the cockpit of his Williams Formula 1 car after a disappointing showing in Chinese Grand Prix sprint qualifying.

The Spaniard joined Williams from Ferrari over the winter and set the pace in pre-season testing before crashing behind the safety car during the Australian Grand Prix last weekend.

Sainz, with four grand prix victories to his name, could only manage 13th place on the grid for Saturday’s sprint race in Shanghai - in contrast to team-mate Alex Albon, who progressed into the top 10 - and conceded he is still learning his new surroundings.

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“I’ve struggled all day with the balance, and both sessions have been quite tough,” Sainz said.

“In sprint quali we had a few issues, including a weird feeling with the seat that we’ll look into, but overall it comes down to me still not feeling at home in the car.

“We were struggling with some balance problems and especially coming down to Q2, not knowing exactly where to find the lap time and a bit of overdriving.

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“I still have to learn and understand many things about it and I know, with more mileage, it will come. Hopefully tomorrow we can put everything together and improve today’s result for Sunday.

“It's been a difficult weekend up until now, we're trying to find the balance of the car, it feels quite different here with the wind and, as I said, I’m struggling to find lap time when it comes to qualifying.”

Albon believes tyre degradation could play a pivotal role during the sprint race given that many teams seem to be struggling with temperatures.

“Tyres are not that easy to know what to do with them. I think the tyres have been – we've seen it this year so far – very sensitive, and long corners like they are in China tend to make the tyres work a bit harder,” he said.

“It's hard to get them into a good place so we'll do some work overnight and try and get back stronger tomorrow.

“I think graining is going to be a big talking point, the front especially, which is what's been hard in low fuel as well but in high fuel it gets out of control.

“So I think it's going to be a very managed race, unfortunately it might look a bit boring in the first few laps and then you'll see a bit of a race towards the end.”