01/05/2025
NEWS STORY
As he settles in to the Williams 'family', Carlos Sainz admits that he is "not surprised" that Lewis Hamilton is finding it hard to acclimatise to his old team.
Both drivers have had teething problems settling in at their new outfits, but, the Shanghai Sprint aside, Hamilton appears to be finding it harder.
"I'm not surprised at all," admitted the Spaniard when asked about the Briton's struggles. "I think for me I expected it to myself and I expected it with him.
"In this sport there's no secrets and when you are up against two teammates like we are, like Alex and Charles, that they know the team inside out, they are already performing at the maximum that their car can perform" added the Spaniard, who not only out-qualified his teammate in Jeddah, but finished ahead of him in the race.
"You can only do just a little bit better or the same as them," he continued. "You cannot suddenly arrive and be two or three tenths quicker because it's not possible. They are already at the limit of the car. So when you jump to a new team and you're expected by yourself and by everyone around you to be at that level, it's going to take time.
"There's no secrets," he insisted. "They know a lot more than you, that it's going to take a bit of time and the sooner you make that process and the sooner you are at that level, the better. But for some drivers it might take longer or shorter.
"Lewis had an amazing weekend in China," he admitted. "He seems to have a bit more trouble now but it's going to take time for both."
As well as new teams, both drivers are having to deal with new power units, and in Hamilton's case engine braking has been an issue since the start of the season.
"For me, this is just one of the things that you have to learn," said Sainz. "Some teams like to use engine braking to turn the car, others prefer using more the differential, others prefer to use the brake migration, others more the set-up of the car naturally, front-end with aero, others with mechanical, others with pitch, others with ride.
"You cannot imagine the amount of variability that you can make the car get to a similar lap time in just completely different ways," he said. "For sure, that might be one of the things, at least one of the 15-20 things that I'm trying to still figure out. I'm trying high engine braking in Williams to see if it works, I'm trying low, I'm trying differential maps, I'm trying mechanical, I'm trying everything every week just to see what the car likes and what it doesn't.
"There's things that suit your style, others that they don't," he added. "I think it's that fight and that process that I enjoy. You're going to get wrong many times, but as long as you enjoy it and you just embrace it, you know you're going to get it wrong a few times, but you're also going to... when you click and you get, 'ah, this works', it's actually a eureka moment that feels good."