Carlos Sainz’s Qatar podium aided by Williams engineers masking one ‘weakness’ of their F1 car

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Carlos Sainz secured third place at the Qatar Grand Prix on pure merit, marking his second podium of a turbulent debut season with Williams in 2025.

The Spaniard was cool, calm and collected (except for an issue that plagued his final few laps) under the lights in Lusail as he finished behind Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri in the midst of their attempts to keep the title race alive and kicking.

The two podiums that he currently holds to his name as a Williams driver haven’t been entirely reflective of his season at the Grove-based F1 outfit.

Upon his arrival to the team ahead of the current campaign, Sainz found it tricky to adapt from his frontrunning Ferrari F1 car to the midfield calibre of machinery.

However, Williams are now on the cusp of securing their best season in F1 since 2015, and he’s had a bit part to play in it.

• READ MORE: Carlos Sainz shows he’s the classiest driver in F1 with reaction to Lewis Hamilton Ferrari struggles

Finish the sentence: In 2026, Carlos Sainz will finish ____ in the championship with Williams

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Williams engineers have been able to mask the FW47’s ‘weakness’ in fast corners through setup changes.

In a recent episode of Formel Schmidt, F1 journalist Michael Schmidt discussed the changing dynamic of Williams’ driver duo after Sainz’s podium heroics in Qatar.

Schmidt noted one big surprise from the British constructor’s successful weekend with Sainz, saying, “Williams went there and said, ‘This will be our worst race.’

“Probably because it was last year for them, the race to forget, one could say. And the car is not that great in fast corners, especially when they are elongated.

“I thought that the radii are not that long, but James Vowles said that because many fast corners follow one after the other, the drivers take a large radius out of it and that is not so good for the car.

“But they managed the setup well; they already showed that in Zandvoort. That is also a track they don’t like that much.

“But the Williams engineers are really good at the setup and have thus masked this weakness.

“Sainz drove to third on his own power, and the lap times were sensational, you really have to say that. They were maybe about three-tenths slower than those of Verstappen and the McLarens.”

• READ MORE: Carlos Sainz shares why he’s ‘glad’ to still be Ferrari’s last Grand Prix winner after Williams move

Christijan Albers believes Carlos Sainz’s results are now putting ‘pressure’ on Alex Albon

Vowles recently revealed that Alex Albon has started to utilise Sainz’s setups on race weekends in a bid to get him out of the rut he is still in the midst of experiencing.

After starting the year off with seven top 10 finishes in the first eight races, the Thai driver hasn’t managed to score a single point in the last seven Grands Prix.

Speaking on a recent episode of De Telegraaf’s F1 podcast, former driver Christijan Albers highlighted how Sainz’s results are now putting Albon under pressure to record a similar calibre of results.

He said, “What strikes me about Sainz is that he’s now outqualifying Albon. He feels it now. I notice that the pressure has increased there.

“He’s not performing as well in qualifying now. And that’s a shame to see, because he was definitely the better one in the initial situation.

“But you do notice that when Sainz is in a field like that, and is a little bit behind, and he can’t drive freely, he has a very difficult time.

“Now, here, he really was given a bit of a gift because everyone else dropped out.”