It’s advantage Albon so far at resurgent Williams as Sainz needs a change in luck

Williams hiring Carlos Sainz Jnr was a statement of the team’s ambition as James Vowles seeks to move the squad up the grid.

But so far his big-name hiring from Ferrari is yet to produce the kind of headline-grabbing result that was expected of him. Instead Alexander Albon, in his fourth season at the team, has delivered more than three-quarters of the team’s points tally.

That might not have been what Vowles hoped for as he watched his new signing win the Mexican Grand Prix for Ferrari late last year. But Sainz had warned it would take a few races for him to get up to speed in his new surroundings (notwithstanding the fact he’s had more team moves than the average driver – Williams is his fifth home in 10 seasons.)

Indeed, Sainz’s projection that it would take him half-a-dozen races especially to figure out how to coax the best from the soft tyres over a single flying lap appeared to be borne out. His qualifying performances clearly improved over that time.

He was puzzled, therefore, by the difficulties he began to encounter around the time of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, when Pirelli introduced its new, softer C6 tyre. By the Austrian round at the end of last month Sainz was publicly suggesting “something changed” around that time which prevented the team getting the most out of the softest tyres.

While both drivers have suffered from occasional reliability problems with the FW47, Sainz he can justifiably claim his misfortune has cost him better results at times. Yuki Tsunoda clattered into him in Bahrain, Albon damaged his floor in Miami, Isack Hadjar wrecked his qualifying effort in Montreal and Charles Leclerc bundled him off the track at Silverstone.

Although Albon was forced to park up for two consecutive races in Canada and Austria, he was also able to deliver Williams’ best results of the season while the going was good earlier in the year. He took fifth places at Melbourne, Imola and Miami – the latter a particularly strong weekend for him but for a Safety Car blunder in the sprint race.

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Williams clearly have one of their strongest driver line-ups for years – certainly since their Valtteri Bottas/Felipe Massa days, perhaps even further back than that. At the halfway point in the season the wide points gap between the pair is less representative of their performance than the closer qualifying battle.

It appears to be a matter of when Sainz will come good at Williams, rather than if. It’s not hard to imagine his frustration that his championship deficit to Albon is as large as it is.

Sainz vs Albon: Summary

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Sainz vs Albon: Race-by-race

Sainz vs Albon: One-lap pace

Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Sainz Jnr was faster; Positive value: Albon was faster

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