Jul.6 (GMM) Carlos Sainz has doubled down on his criticism of Williams’ stalled development, admitting he is now genuinely worried the team does not understand why its upgrades are failing.
After suggesting at Silverstone that the team’s wind tunnel may not be correlating with what it sees on track, the Spaniard said Sunday’s race only deepened his concerns.
“It’s starting to get worrying because we were hoping to take a big step forward this weekend, which hasn’t happened,” Sainz said.
“I am worried, honestly.”
Williams introduced aerodynamic updates and a lighter front nose at Silverstone, but Sainz said they failed to deliver the expected gains.
“It’s clear that what we brought this weekend hasn’t worked. We were expecting a significant step forward that hasn’t materialised.
“It’s starting to become worrying and frustrating because the improvements aren’t working.”
The four-time grand prix winner believes the problem runs deeper than the new parts themselves.
“When you bring something to the track that shows a lot of laptime in the wind tunnel and in the simulator, and then you see that you’ve only made a very small step forward, it means there’s something not working in our calculations, numbers, development… and that’s worrying.”
“With this set of rules, for whatever reason we still don’t understand, we’re not able to develop the car properly.”
Sainz admitted Williams is now struggling to keep pace with its rivals despite bringing new components to the car.
“I’m worried because it’s the first time I’ve clearly seen that the car isn’t developing this year. We’re not making any progress compared to the rest of the field.
“We’re getting closer and closer to the weight limit, and the gap keeps widening.
“This means the aerodynamics aren’t improving, and it’s starting to worry the team, because we might be having some kind of correlation or development problem.”
Despite his growing concern, Sainz insisted he is not losing patience.
“My patience isn’t going to run out. I’m relatively patient with these things, but right now I’m upset, worried.”
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