‘It’s been quite a challenge’ – Sainz gives his honest reflections on first Williams outings

Carlos Sainz conceded the opening weekends of his Williams career have been ‘challenging’ as the Spaniard looks to take a step forward for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Sainz moved from Ferrari to Williams over the winter break, making way for Lewis Hamilton at the Italian marque, and looked to get off to a strong start with a particularly eye-catching outing in pre-season testing.

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But, while new team mate Alex Albon has registered points in both Grands Prix so far, Sainz crashed behind the Safety Car in Australia and took home a point in China only through the disqualifications of Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly ahead.

Speaking on Thursday at Suzuka, Sainz reflected: “I think it has been quite a challenge, for sure, like always when you change teams.

“You always go through a learning process and an adaptation process that takes time and effort and takes a lot of energy, but I feel like we’re on the right track, going the right way.

“I was very quick in Australia, unfortunately, with the problem in the race, but not so quick in China. We hope to understand why, but it was good to go through that experience and now, hopefully, we can put things together and perform better in this triple header.”

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The issue of drivers struggling in new teams has been also been further highlighted by the decision of Red Bull to shuffle their pack, switching Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda, with the latter set to partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull for the first time in Japan.

And for Sainz, himself formerly part of the Red Bull family, the adaptation period to a new team is something he knows well as he embarks on the early stages of his Williams chapter.

“You need to give yourself time when you change teams – when you have so many things that you are used to and things are so different,” he explained.

“You need to give yourself time to experience those things and to go through different tracks, different experiences and learn from them.

“That is exactly what I am going through right now and I am going to give myself the time in the next few races to get up to speed. But I think overall, we are on the right track.”

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