{"id":32369,"date":"2025-04-03T11:53:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T15:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=32369"},"modified":"2025-04-03T11:53:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T15:53:46","slug":"sainz-habits-from-ferrari-are-complicating-williams-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/03\/sainz-habits-from-ferrari-are-complicating-williams-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"Sainz: Habits from Ferrari are complicating Williams transition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Sainz’s will feel vindicated in his Williams move after the team’s strong start to 2025. The FW47<\/a> is a competitive machine in both low and high-fuel, with enough pace to score points and even occasionally annoy the front-runners.<\/p>\n

Given that the team’s focus has been the 2026 regulations for some time<\/a>, their performance this year is even more impressive.<\/p>\n

With that said, Sainz is currently a few steps behind teammate Alex Albon, who has enjoyed a notable edge so far.<\/p>\n

Ahead of round three in Suzuka, the four-time winner admits that adapting to the FW47 will require dropping some old tendencies.<\/p>\n

Sainz learning to drive new type of car<\/h2>\n

During his five-year stint in Maranello, Sainz proved himself against the extremely fast Charles Leclerc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even if Leclerc enjoyed slightly better results, the Spaniard was consistently within touching distance during their time as teammates.<\/p>\n

Arguably the only exception to this is 2022, when Sainz initially struggled to perform with Ferrari’s first attempt at new ground-effect cars.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Carlos Sainz (ESP) Atlassian Williams Racing.
15.03.2025. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 1, Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia, Qualifying Day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before this year began, he acknowledged that it would take at least a handful of races to acclimatise at Williams.<\/p>\n

This pre-season prediction seems accurate, with the 30-year-old outlining the challenges of performing at a new team:<\/p>\n

“I was used to a certain type of car in Ferrari,”<\/em> Sainz<\/a> told the media.<\/p>\n

“Which made me end up driving, especially since 2022, in a very specific way – t<\/em>o extract everything about that car.<\/em><\/p>\n

“And you fall into, let’s say, habits about your driving – that you then apply to your next car.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It might work in some corners, but in others it makes you very weak. And that’s probably a bit of it.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Then there’s also a side of set-up that can help me drive in the way I like to drive a car – we’re also working on that.<\/em><\/p>\n

“So it’s probably just uniting both.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Alexander Albon (THA) Atlassian Williams Racing FW47 and Carlos Sainz (ESP) Atlassian Williams Racing FW46 in the pits.
15.03.2025. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 1, Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia, Qualifying Day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Williams unconcerned about Sainz’s adjustment<\/h4>\n

Inevitably, there are high expectations about what Sainz can contribute to Williams.<\/p>\n

These have only elevated in the early weeks of 2025, considering that the FW47 is competitive enough to produce noteworthy results in qualifying and – crucially – on race day.<\/p>\n

Still, team principal James Vowles<\/a> is not oblivious to the adaptation period his latest signing must undergo.<\/p>\n

If anything, Sainz’s slow start has given the British team principal a perfect opportunity to highlight Alex Albon’s calibre.<\/p>\n

The Thai driver has done the heavy-lifting at Williams for over a decade – until now in far less competitive cars.<\/p>\n

Vowles has been adamant since arriving to the factory in Grove that Albon is a World Class talent<\/a>, and seeing his efforts relative to Sainz will almost certainly validate this assessment.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the next few months will be a transitional period for the former Ferrari driver.<\/p>\n

Considering that Williams have their sights set on a significant step forward in 2026, Sainz’s arrival is perfectly timed to give him some breathing space at a new environment.<\/p>\n

This bodes well for a Williams team whose recent success only augments the excitement about their long-term prospects.<\/p>\n

The Japanese GP will be another chance for Sainz to get closer to maximising the FW47.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carlos Sainz’s will feel vindicated in his Williams move after the team’s strong start to 2025. The FW47 is a competitive machine in both low and high-fuel, with enough pace to score points and even occasionally annoy the front-runners. Given that the team’s focus has been the 2026 regulations for some time, their performance this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":32372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[343,2452,94],"class_list":["post-32369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-williams"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32369"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32378,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32369\/revisions\/32378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}