Carlos Sainz sounded worryingly like Daniel Ricciardo before his F1 exit when he made strange Williams admission

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Carlos Sainz looked poised for instant success at Williams during pre-season testing. In fact, Sainz’s best time in Bahrain was the fastest of any driver across the three days.

Alpine suspected that Williams were trying to impress their sponsors and did so by emptying their fuel tanks. While they were never realistically going to compete with the frontrunners, the consensus was that they were fifth or sixth-fastest, a clear improvement from last year.

James Vowles wants Sainz to score consistent points and he has the platform to do that. Confident his team can capitalise when the big names falter, Vowles hasn’t ruled out a Williams podium either.

But in the first two races, Alex Albon has played that role instead. Albon sits sixth in the championship with 16 points, 10 of which came from an outstanding P5 in a chaotic Australian GP.

Meanwhile, Sainz has only scored one, and even then he was reliant on three drivers being disqualified (the two Ferraris and Pierre Gasly’s Alpine) at the Chinese Grand Prix. Albon has also outpaced him in every qualifying session.

Carlos Sainz sounded just as confused as Daniel Ricciardo after Chinese Grand Prix woes

Speaking to the sport’s official website after the Chinese GP, Sainz said he was ‘puzzled’ by his lack of pace. He can’t comprehend the performance swing from testing to the opening rounds.

“A bit puzzled to be honest, not happy because ever since I jumped in this car I was very quick in testing so I don’t know where the pace has gone for this weekend,” he said.

“One of the strangest swings of performance I have had in my career, going from naturally super quick in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, even at the beginning of Australia and then suddenly the pace has just seemed to fall away from me.”

Sainz couldn’t point to a particular explanation, and here he sounded eerily like Daniel Ricciardo in the months before he lost his RB seat last year. After the British Grand Prix, where he finished 13th, Ricciardo explained that his feeling in the car wasn’t aligning with his lap times.

Ricciardo: “My engineer asked me where, what am I missing? What do I need? And I felt like I was saying, like, the balance and stuff was actually okay, felt like we’re just lacking load.

“That’s why, when I heard the laptimes of the others, I was quite confused because I did the lap, and the lap felt pretty clean – a few little things, but felt decent. I was close to the potential of the car, and that’s when I was like, I don’t really have an answer right now.”

Sainz is only two races into his Williams career, so there’s no cause to panic yet. But it’s always concerning when a driver is at a loss to explain poor performances, precluding a quick fix.

Ted Kravitz concerned about Carlos Sainz after hearing his Williams radio

In another disconcerting parallel, RB gave Ricciardo a new chassis early in the 2024 season to assuage his concerns about possible damage. And journalist Carlos Miquel has claimed that Sainz is using a repaired tub from last year’s FW46.

Williams insist that both drivers are running the same chassis, but Sainz will no doubt be searching for an explanation for his unexpected deficit to Albon.

He struggled to find his rhythm from the outset in China. After Sprint qualifying on Friday, Sainz reported a ‘weird’ issue with his seat, which wasn’t properly secured in place.

Sky Sports analyst Ted Kravitz says Sainz is having a ‘torrid time’ right now. The Spaniard told his team following the chequered flag on Sunday that ‘I’m faster than this’, a glimpse of his frustration.