Carlos Sainz is starting to find his footing at Williams, emphasizing "little steps" in adapting his driving style and approach to car setup after posting a strong fifth-fastest time in Friday’s second practice session in Jeddah.
The Spaniard, who joined Williams from Ferrari during the off-season, has faced a challenging start to his 2025 campaign with the Grove-based outfit but showed promising pace in FP2 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, clocking in just 0.675 seconds behind session leader Lando Norris.
With teammate Alex Albon also securing a top-10 time, Williams appears to be gaining momentum, though Sainz remains cautious about sustaining this form through the weekend.
“It’s just little steps with trying to adapt my driving style a bit to the car, little steps with set-up, trying to get it into a better window,” commented Sainz after Friday’s running.
“It’s a bit my driving and the limitations that we have this year and we’re trying to make little steps.
“Some things seemed to work, others didn’t. We did a decent lap on softs that put us quite high on the timesheets today. Let’s see if we can keep it up tomorrow. I hope so.”
Sainz noted that progress hasn't come without setbacks – but viewed the occasional misstep as part of the learning curve.
“I’m trying so many different things with my set-up and my driving that for sure, you see progress. Sometimes I try something, but I go backwards and that then makes me go forwards, because I know which direction I don’t need to go in.
“The same applies to my driving. I try little things with my driving style and the switches in the car and sometimes I go backwards, but sometimes, it helps me go forwards.
“It’s an adaptation process and the time that I am giving myself to understand these things. I was warned it was going to take time and it is taking time, but when I get it, I’ll be there.”
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When asked whether reaching Q3 in qualifying was now a baseline expectation given his top-five performance, Sainz reaffirmed his intent.
“I always target Q3 and points. This is the target for me and the team every weekend.
“So far, it has been hard to get because of our difficulties with my adaptation process and things not going our way, but hopefully this weekend is a good step.”
It was a productive day overall for Williams, with Alex Albon also breaking into the top ten, finishing 10th in FP2 ahead of both Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli.
Despite a promising result, Albon was keen to highlight that improvements are still needed before qualifying.
“We’re finding our feet a little bit,” he said. “I was a bit happier with the car in FP1 than FP2. It got a little bit scrappy on the last set of soft tyres which we need to improve on what went wrong, and I think we still need to work a little bit on our long run pace.
“A bit of finetuning. It’s going to be close, as always, so every little bit helps.”
Williams will now look to carry this upward momentum into Saturday’s qualifying, hoping to convert positive signs into meaningful grid positions as both drivers continue refining their performance and connection with the car.
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