Sainz: Williams has clawed back lost mileage – but work remains

Carlos Sainz believes Williams has recovered the crucial mileage it lost by missing January’s Barcelona shakedown, with the FW48 showing strong reliability in pre-season testing – even if the Spaniard admits there are still “quite a few” areas demanding improvement.

After development delays forced Williams to skip F1’s private shakedown in Barcelona at the end of last month, the team arrived in Bahrain knowing it had work to do. Pre-season testing is often described as a race against time – and for Williams, that race began later than most.

But halfway through the second week of running, Sainz sees reasons for optimism.

Mileage First, Speed Second

“As far as testing goes, I think what we needed over the last few days, which was to recover the time lost in Barcelona by adding a lot of mileage to the car, I think we've managed to do that well, and the car is running reliably from the beginning,” Sainz told reporters in Bahrain.

In a sport where every lap is data and every data point is development, reliability has been Williams’ quiet triumph. The FW48 may not yet be the finished product, but it is at least allowing the engineers to understand it.

“That's allowing us to find out the limitations and the areas where we have to improve, which, unfortunately, there are quite a few,” Sainz added.

“But as I said, the main thing last week was mileage, and then this week we are finally starting to try and find a bit of lap time and performance out of it and try to put it in a better set-up window.”

The approach has been methodical: first ensure the car runs consistently, then begin unlocking performance. Missing Barcelona meant sacrificing early experimentation, but Bahrain has become a crash course in catching up.

Understanding the Set-Up Window

When pressed on what finding a better “set-up window” actually means, Sainz offered a revealing explanation of how much that missed test affected preparation.

“I mean, probably just what it means being a bit behind schedule of missing testing,” he explained.

“It means you probably cannot find the first things out on Barcelona, where to put the car and then you're a bit of a step behind in terms of set-up understanding.

“But last week the conditions were really tricky for everyone. I think it was really, really windy every day. This week suddenly the wind has calmed down and I think it's much more normal conditions.

“And the cars, I think, for everyone are a lot more predictable, a lot better to drive. But we've also done some set-up adjustments to adapt the car set-up a bit more to these regulations and it seems like it's going in the right direction.”

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That final sentiment – going in the right direction – captures the mood within Williams. The FW48 still has limitations. Performance gains will not arrive overnight. But the foundation is being laid.

For Sainz and Williams, pre-season testing has shifted from damage limitation to genuine development. The Barcelona setback may have delayed the start – yet in Bahrain, lap by lap, the recovery is taking shape.

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