Three years ago, Carlos Sainz won his first Formula 1 race in Silverstone, but in 2025 he and his Williams team had major problems. On Friday, the Spaniard did not get out of place in the free training session with 1.3 seconds behind and struggles primarily with the strong wind.
“I think we all had our good and bad moments out there,” he says. “If you have headwind, the car feels great. If you have a tailwind, it is a nightmare. It was extremely difficult to hold the car on the track and be constant.”
“But today we simply devised our program – with the main focus on our reliability problems and to improve them. Hopefully we can concentrate more on performance tomorrow and find something.”
How difficult it was for Sainz on Friday was clear, among other things, when the Luffield curve exit at the outcome of the Luffield curve, when the Williams driver stood across the lane and had driven almost Nico Hülkenberg in front of the car while rolling off. The Spaniard was warned by the racing commissioners for this campaign.
He explains: “You are in the middle of the track and just want to continue driving as quickly as possible. In these cars you have zero visibility – you don’t see anything on the side. So you are caught in a very strange, unfortunate position.”
“I tried to get back on the track as safe as possible because you don’t want to cause an accident,” said Sainz. “In this case, it looks worse in the onboard than it actually was.”
According to the commissioners, Sainz looked at the right to check whether another car is approaching. “The driver explained that due to the Hans system and the height of the headrest, it was not possible for him to look to the right. In addition, he had misjudged and assumed that other vehicles could drive past him in relation to his exact position.”
By driving forward, Hülkenberg had to avoid to the left to avoid a collision.
Williams hopes for colder temperatures
“Since this section of the route was secured with double -swiveled yellow flags, the potential danger to Auto 27 was reduced. Nevertheless, this does not release a driver from the obligation to ensure that he is not a danger to others – especially if he is not certain of his situation,” said the commissioner.
“We believe that the situation was not an immediate danger – especially because of the double yellow phase – but had the potential for it. Therefore, the driver of Auto 55 was given a warning.”
Sainz is therefore unencumbered in qualifying, where he hopes for somewhat cooler conditions for Williams. “I think that would help us,” he says. “Let’s see what effect it has on the soft tires – it is difficult for us to make work.”
“And then the wind: honestly, if you are lucky with the wind here, you can put a great round – or a fairly difficult one. I think it will be similar with everyone.”