Carlos Sainz believes Williams ‘clearly’ have a ‘limitation’ after what he noticed in Baku

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Carlos Sainz is contesting his 17th round as a Williams driver at the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as the Spaniard also strives to snap his six-race scoreless streak in Baku.

The 31-year-old has not earned a point in a Grand Prix since he finished June’s Canadian GP in 10th place. Sainz did not start the Austrian GP due to a brake problem, before taking P12 in Britain, P18 in Belgium, P14 in Hungary, P13 in the Netherlands and P11 in Italy (Monza).

Only when Sainz finished the Spa Sprint in P6 has he scored points with three since leaving Montreal. His plight during the second half of the European leg of the 2025 F1 season also leaves him 18th in the F1 drivers’ standings, despite teammate Alex Albon ranking seventh.

Albon has scored 70 points so far this season to Sainz’s 16 ahead of the Azerbaijan GP. Only Yuki Tsunoda with 12 points plus Franco Colapinto and Jack Doohan, who are yet to score a point in 2025, rank below Sainz in the standings after the first 16 of this season’s 24 rounds.

Carlos Sainz believes Williams have a ‘limitation’ finding performance at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Pirelli’s soft tyres

Williams are concerned that Sainz has missed out on their best chances to secure a big haul of points, like the P5 results that Albon took in Australia, Miami, Imola and the Netherlands. London-born Thai Albon also came P6 in Belgium, while Sainz is yet to finish higher than P8.

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Qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP could also make life tricky for Sainz in Baku this week, after he noticed a clear “limitation” with the Williams FW47 when using the C6 compound Pirelli soft tyres. Pirelli has provided its softest tyre compound in Baku due to the low asphalt grip.

Sainz said, via Motorsport.com: “We were very fast in the long stints [and] very fast on the medium [C5] tyre in the first session.

“But once we switched to the soft at the end, we weren’t able to improve any of our times. There’s clearly a limitation, and it’s something we’ll have to continue working on.”

Williams have qualified strongly when Pirelli has brought the C6 soft tyres in use in Baku

Pirelli has chosen the C6 compound tyre as the soft tyre for the Azerbaijan GP due to Baku’s city streets producing low levels of grip and low levels of abrasion. The Italian manufacturer has also noticed sizable drop-offs in tyre temperatures at previous visits to the City of Wind.

The Azerbaijan GP is the fourth time that Pirelli has chosen to provide the C6 compound this season, following the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola, Monaco GP and Canadian GP. Sainz was P6 in qualifying at Imola, got P11 in qualifying in Monaco but only qualified P17 in Montreal.

Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar impeded Sainz in qualifying for the Canadian GP, which saw the Spaniard bow out in Q1. Albon also reached Q3 in Montreal as he scored P10, as well as qualifying P7 at Imola and P10 in Monaco after he was 0.630s quicker than Sainz during Q2.

Sainz will hope Williams can find a solution overnight on Friday and during FP3 on Saturday morning in Baku to now reach Q3 in qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP. The former Ferrari ace has so far made Q3 six times across 16 rounds since he moved from Maranello this season.