Carlos Sainz Jnr says it’s time for Williams to consider new solutions to its lack of performance on softer tyre compounds.

The team’s car was out-paced by all of its rivals on the first day of practice at the Red Bull Ring. Sainz said they are competitive on the harder tyres but not the soft rubber they will have to use in qualifying.

“It’s better than what it looks [like], for sure,” Sainz told the official F1 website after practice yesterday. “I think we’re quite down on the times sheets but we’re having a lot of issues putting the lap together on soft tyres.”

Sainz believes the team’s soft tyre pace has dropped off since the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix last month. “It’s been the trend over the last few races,” he said.

“I think since Imola we haven’t managed to really find a groove with soft tyres. We were super competitive back then but something’s changed that every time we use the C5 or the C6 [tyre compound] we don’t seem to be very competitive.

“On hard tyres, I think I was [third]. This morning on mediums, I was [first]. And then suddenly we switched to softs and all that grip goes away, or the others manage to find grip that we don’t seem to find. So we’ll have to work a bit on that.”

He said the team’s race pace “seems fine” and he intends to use today’s final practice session to try new solutions for their qualifying pace.

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“We have two sets of soft [tyres for] FP3 to try something. Because right now, if the car would be on mediums, used tyres, hards, I think it would be good for Q3. But as soon as you put the soft, which is the tyre we need in quali, we need something new.

“So we’re going to try things, I think it’s time to start trying something.”

*Friday practice

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