Sainz calls poor British Grand Prix weekend “a wake-up call” for Williams

Carlos Sainz Jnr said Williams’ poor performance in the British Grand Prix after introducing a highly anticipated upgrade for its FW48 should prompt a reaction from the team.

Williams has been struggling with an overweight car since the start of the season. It brought a package of new parts for its car last weekend in a bid to bring its weight down.

However the team failed to score points for the third weekend in a row. The team which finished fifth in the championship last year remains eighth in the standings and is losing touch with rivals including Alpine and Racing Bulls.

Sainz admitted the team’s Silverstone weekend “was much more difficult than we had anticipated and hoped for.”

“We need to focus on what’s wrong with the car and also analyse why the upgrade hasn’t delivered as expected, so it’s a wake-up call for us.”

Having qualified 14th, Sainz gained four places at the start but was unable to keep his car inside the points positions. He was originally classified 12th before a post-race one-lap penalty for a Safety Car infringement dropped him to 17th.

“I had a great start and overtook all the cars I needed to get into the points,” said Sainz. “I tried to defend [10th place] with everything I had, but we simply didn’t have the pace to hold off the competition.”

He said the team needs to go further in understanding the problems with its car.

“I feel like I’m performing at a high level, and the team also pushed flat-out to arrive here with two front wings, which is reassuring and good to see,” he said. “However, we now need a deeper analysis of what’s going on with our car, as we’re lacking too much performance.”

Williams team principal James Vowles believes the team’s apparent lack of progress despite its upgrade is due to the gains their rivals have made.

“It was a tough weekend,” he said. “We brought performance to the car but it’s simply not enough.

“The competitors are adding either more than we are or we’re not extracting everything out of the package and perhaps a mix of both of those. Carlos did everything right, [he made a] great start, but simply we weren’t fast enough.”

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