Williams team principal James Bowles says Carlos Sainz “really put in a hard graft” to improve his form after joining the team this season.
Sainz was Williams’ high-profile signature during the offseason, but after an encouraging preseason, he crashed behind the Australian safety car, struggling in the opening round compared to his teammate Alex Albon. The clear advancement in the last two events culminated in Saudi Arabia’s eighth place, with Bowles saying he was impressed with Sainz’s approach to transitioning from Ferrari.
“He really put the hard graft here,” Vowles told Siriusxm. “A big positive attitude from the first kilometre he really drove for his team. But he really said, “There’s something I’m trying to improve. Here’s what I have to move forward.
“It could be a seating, discussion, engineering, a change in the screen before him. There’s 100. They’re all improving to make us better.
With Sainz arriving at the end of the current regulatory cycle, Vowles says there are areas that can be improved in the short term, but there are other aspects that can be fully addressed over a longer period of time.
“What he can really do is in a really concise way, “Here is a very specific area that I need to work on. This is what I do next race to get there, and that’s how we move forward as a team.” It’s really positive to see how he handles it effectively, uses the data to drive it and move forward.
“There are still some elements that need to be improved in the car. Some are burning. I think it’s really hard to fix it in the next six or seven months of space. But some of them still tickle a bit, and that’s the direction we’re going to go.”