Going into this weekend’s F1 Qatar GP, Williams Racing believed they would struggle to compete. However, the British outfit shocked everyone — including themselves — as both cars qualified 8th and 10th for the Sprint Race. After an outstanding P3 start at the 2025 F1 Las Vegas GP just one week ago, Carlos Sainz will start ahead of Alex Albon.
This is the first time both Williams drivers have reached Q3 since the Emilia Romagna GP back in May. With Williams sitting comfortably in 5th in the Constructors’ Championship, this gives the Grove team a chance to extend their advantage over their closest rivals, Racing Bulls, even before the main race.
Williams exceeds expectations in Lusail
Reflecting on the last three races of the 2025 season, Team Principal James Vowles argued that Qatar would expose the FW47’s weaknesses. The car has struggled at tracks that produce long periods of lateral G-force — an issue exposed at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where Sainz and Albon could only manage 14th and 15th.
The Lusail International Circuit poses a similar challenge to the Hungaroring, with its long flowing corners taken at speeds that do not gel with the FW47. It was no surprise, then, that Vowles and others inside the team had tempered expectations early on. That sentiment was shared by the drivers, who were pleasantly surprised by their strong Friday performance.
Speaking to print media after the Sprint Qualifying session at the 2025 F1 Qatar GP, Sainz, when asked how he found the session, replied, “Yeah, good. I mean we were much quicker than expected this weekend, right from the off in FP1. Quite encouraged to see the car performing at a good level this weekend when we expected to be almost out in Q1.”
Better performance on the harder compounds
Sainz noted that the FW47 continued to perform better on the harder tyre compounds, with the team losing relative pace once the softs were fitted for SQ3.
“Like always with our car, we seem to be better with the harder compounds. In FP1 I was almost on the hard tyre, nearly P1. Then on mediums in Q2 I’m top 5 and then when you put the softs on in Q3 the others seem to find more lap time than we did.”
Despite finishing P8, Sainz believes there is still more performance to unlock from the FW47 ahead of Sunday’s race.
“And in the end, P8 only half a tenth of P5, so we know there’s half a tenth there to find for tomorrow that could give us a much better track position for the race.”
A gamble pays off
Part of Williams’ unexpectedly strong showing came from a bold change in car setup. Sainz explained: ”I mean, we’ve gone a bit experimental with setup this weekend, and we’ve decided to run a car that we would never run, or we haven’t run pretty much all year, and just adapted to this style of corner, and it seems like the car is working”.
He expressed his satisfaction with this approach, adding: “So I’m glad, you know, that the team keeps experimenting, we keep pushing. Also for me, as a learning point of view,when I push a team to try radically different setups or some big differences, I feel like I learn a lot from the car, and the team, and the way the team and the car responds”.
Although Williams shifted their full focus to the 2026 car months ago, data like this — particularly on an issue that has troubled them all season — remains crucial as they prepare for the new regulations.
Albon optimistic but notes mistakes made
Meanwhile, despite the far more positive result than expected, Sainz’s teammate Alex Albon believes the team made a crucial mistake with its timing. When asked how his final run unfolded, he replied:
“Yeah, poor execution on our side. I think we were okay. We weren’t the quickest out there, but we were much better than we thought we would be coming into the weekend.”
”We came out of the garage way too late in SQ3, so we basically were scrambling to get across the chequered flag.”
He summarised the situation succinctly: “Anyway, a mess.”
When asked if he could look forward to gains in the Sprint Race and Qualifying sessions on Saturday, he replied, “Yeah. Yeah, we’ll try.
Both cars will start in vital positions tomorrow. All Williams can hope for is that these new experiments continue to pay off, as the dust settles in Lusail.
