Sainz warns Williams FW48 issues run deeper than weight problem

Carlos Sainz has warned Williams’ struggles run deeper than the FW48’s weight problem, insisting the car also needs upgrades to unlock performance.

In fact, the only thing that’s not an issue is the power unit, after all, the Mercedes engine is “P1 in every session”.

Carlos Sainz says Williams needs upgrades beyond FW48 weight reduction

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Williams has yet to get off the mark this season, with the Grove team one of three outfits stuck at the bottom of the standings without a point on the board.

Although much was expected of Williams after last year’s P5 in the Constructors’ standings, the team has been on the back foot from the get-go after missing the opening pre-season shakedown test.

Its troubles continued into the season-opening Australian Grand Prix where Sainz barely managed any running on the Friday and none on the Saturday before finishing the grand prix down in 15th place, three positions behind Alex Albon.

China has been better for the Spaniard in terms of lap count, but not performance, with Williams suffering a double Q1 elimination in both Sprint qualifying and qualifying for the grand prix.

It is, says Sainz, a case of biding his time as Williams works to take weight off the FW48.

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“We have to, I have to,” he insisted to the media, “because, if not the year is going to be too long. So I’m going to have to focus on the little wins or the little small games that we can do as a team.

“Clearly, what we’ve come up for this first half of the season is not going to be enough to even get out of Q1.

“Today at one point, I thought maybe it was a good lap enough to go through Q2 but yeah, we know where the weight would put us on the timing sheets, but at the same time I feel like it’s not only weight.

“We need to do big steps in performance if we want to show our value.”

Weight, though, is not the only issue.

The four-time grand prix winner says overall the car needs an upgrade, with just about everything needing to improve except the power unit.

“We found a bit of performance with a PU compared to yesterday, and probably since Australia it’s also a bit better. But we know our main weakness is not the PU. The PU is P1 in every session.

“We know we need to get the weight out of the car, and we need to bring upgrades, and we want to hold our promises, which is that this year was supposed to be a good one.”

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