Carlos Sainz comments on Williams after the first day of FW48 testing in Bahrain: Confidence in the team has not been affected
At the start of testing in Bahrain, Carlos Sainz comments on the delays of recent weeks and their impact on his confidence in Williams. “I wouldn’t say that confidence has been damaged,” explains the Spaniard.
“It’s more a realization that there are still many areas where, even though we finished P5 in the World Championship standings last year, we are not yet where we want to be. Especially when compared to the top teams and how they implement their winter preparations and the change in regulations.”
Sainz emphasizes that there is still a lot of room for improvement: “We know that there is enormous progress to be made in many areas. When I joined Williams, I knew that this would be the case. I am here to help in all areas and do my part.”
Williams gets off to a busy start: 145 laps on the first day of testing
Williams put in a real marathon effort on the first day of official testing. Carlos Sainz and teammate Alexander Albon completed a total of 145 laps in the new FW48. This made the British team the busiest on the track at the start of the three-day Bahrain test.
“It was a very productive day for learning everything new about the regulations,” reports Sainz. “We were able to complete all the planned runs without any problems and make up for the time lost in Barcelona. Of course, I would have liked to have had the three shakedown days in Barcelona, but unfortunately we had a few unexpected problems in the winter.”
However, the delayed start to the season did not seem to cause the team any significant difficulties. Sainz praised the preparation in the simulator: “To be honest, the car behaved pretty much as expected in the simulator. That gives us a good basis for making the upcoming tests even more productive.”
