Williams left Interlagos empty-handed for the second race weekend running as Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz struggled for pace at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Both drivers failed to make Q3 and the FW47 was generally off the pace around the circuit’s particular demands.
Across the 71-lap race the pair ran around the fringes of the top 10. Albon finished 11th, less than two seconds behind Liam Lawson’s group, while Sainz brought the car home in 13th.
Albon said the team had missed a scoring opportunity and will need to examine the strategy. He felt they had placed themselves well but stayed out too long on the opening stint, which compromised the remainder of the race, and he warned the team must understand why the car was so slow at a weekend like this.
Sainz’s race was hampered early when contact with Lewis Hamilton at the first corner cost him a large portion of the front wing. With significant front-wing damage he suffered heavy understeer and accelerated front-tyre degradation; a slow early pit stop added to the problems. Those setbacks left him a couple of seconds shy of the points, he said, and wondering what might have been.
Despite the non-scoring weekend, Williams remain fifth in the Teams’ Championship, 29 points clear of Racing Bulls, with three Grands Prix and a Sprint still to run.