It was a disappointing F1 Spanish GP Qualifying session for Williams, with Sainz out in Q1 and Albon narrowly missing out on making it in Q3.
Hometown hero Carlos Sainz qualified in P18, and teammate Alexander Albon will head into the Spanish GP from eleventh.
Albon on a tricky Qualifying session
In his post-Qualifying chat in the print media pen, Albon was quick to point to dirty air as the culprit for him missing out on Q3 as Ollie Bearman annoyed him greatly.
“Yeah, I mean, I know it looks really dramatic, and it is dramatic in many places, but it’s more just the cars are so sensitive to dirty air, so the margins are so small, and Q3 was there for the taking, but I lost load.
“I was slow in turn 10 and turn 12 compared to my previous laps, and that wasn’t enough for Q3, so that’s why.”
Albon doubled down on his statement, convinced that without dirty air, he would have made it into the final part of Qualifying.
“No, no, I mean, it’s genuine.
“I would have gotten to Q3 if I didn’t have the dirty air.
“It’s just that. That’s the way it is.”
New front wing
Williams, like many teams, brought a new front wing to Barcelona in response to TD018, a change that had no effect on FW47, according to Albon.
“Nothing.
“Honestly, nothing on our car. I would say that we have a very similar car to pre-weekend.
“For us, honestly, it’s been, I think, harder to tell than most people.
“I’ve done no laps this weekend. I missed out in FP1 with rookie driving, and then in FP3, we had an issue with the car.
“I did one lap, so before Quali, I’ve done pretty much two laps of low fuel, so actually, all things considered, I haven’t really been able to feel what the differences are with the new front wing.”
Williams expected to struggle in Barcelona, expectations that were confirmed in FP1, says Albon:
“Maybe, yes.
“I feel like we haven’t gone into qualifying more compromised than we have this weekend.
“We obviously knew we were going to struggle this weekend.
“I think FP1 proved it.
A difficult Spanish GP weekend
The Thai driver had missed out on running in FP1, handing over the wheel of his Williams to rookie Victor Martins, and thus had to rely on data collected by teammate Carlos Sainz.
Albon also faced technical issues that limited his run in FP3.
This, combined with the usage of three fresh sets of soft tyres in Q1, proved to be the final nail in the coffin for Albon’s Q3 aspiration in Qualifying.
“FP2, I was kind of also just relying a bit more on Carlos, just because he had a bit more laps under his belt.
“We had some issues electronically in our car, so we had to change that as well, and we had to use three sets in Q1.
“So, considering all the things that we’ve done, I’ve never been out in Q1 at this track before.
“We got into Q2, we almost got into Q3, and I think realistically, if you just take the fact that we had only one set in Q2, we would have got through.
“So, all good things.
“It still shows us we have weaknesses in our car, and there’s still a DNA that we need to fix, that clearly Barcelona exposes it, but we’re united.”
Albon on the hard tyre
Asked whether the hard compound tyre would be an option for tomorrow’s Spanish GP, Albon noted that Williams had struggled a lot with the set.
“We struggled a lot, and the hard tyre is not good around this track so far, so we’ll have to wait and see.
“I think the track temp is really making the hard tyre, we think it would work, but it doesn’t, so it depends.”
Sainz on missing out on the potential in F1 Spanish GP Qualifying
Carlos Sainz echoed Albon’s conviction that the FW47 had the potential to make it into the final Qualifying part.
The Spaniard noted that the feeling inside the car had improved compared to the previous day, enforcing the belief that they could make Q3.
However, similar to Albon, Sainz encountered traffic on his push laps that resulted in him struggling with dirty air and overheating tyres.
The resulting loss of time in a tight field meant that Sainz finished Qualifying for the Spanish GP in P18.
“Well, first of all, I think the car today felt a lot better than yesterday, and I think after my laps in FP3, I thought we were potential Q3 contenders putting things together.
“We clearly didn’t put things together, we were just a bit unlucky in the second run of Q1 with the front position really late.
“We were out of position on the out lap and on the push lap, meaning I had to overtake 5 or 6 cars in the push lap, lots of dirty air, and probably also overheating a bit, my tyres.
“When you see Q1, you see we were one tenth, one tenth and a half off to P7, and we were P18.
“All these fine margins and all these things that can go against you in a Q1 went against us today, and we need to make sure we learn from it and we cannot repeat it again.
“At the same time, I think it was a Q1 unlucky situation.
“Today, the car felt much better, and we should have been higher.”
Room for improvement
Sainz acknowledged that the team could have been a bit more conservative in their approach to Qualifying, though he maintained that the car had the potential for Q3.
“Yeah, at the same time, it’s one track where we expect to have a bit of equilibrium.
“At the same time, even how bad this track is for us, I believe we still were in the fight for Q3.
“Not where we want to be, but still not as bad as it looks.
“We were just 1 tenth off from P10, P7 in Q1, and we only ran 2 sets.
“The rest of them ran three sets in the back, maybe we should have been more cautious with that, but we were quite confident after P3.
“Just being maybe so strong in FP3 probably compromised a bit my Q1, but it’s what it is.
“We’ll learn from it and see what we can do next time we are weaker.”
Williams’s weakness
When questioned about the FW47’s main weaknesses, Sainz points to a lack of downforce that is particularly present in long corners like those encountered during the Spanish GP.
“The moment we put combined, it’s what I’ve been saying from the race 1 that I jumped in the car, the moment you put combined forces in this car, the downforce falls away from the car, and that’s why we like long straights, short corners.
“The longer the corner, the more time we spend in a condition where the car has no downforce or has very little downforce compared to what it produces at lower angles.
“It’s something we cannot solve immediately, it’s something that the team has improved a lot compared to last year, but still it remains the main weakness of the car.”
Sainz on racing at home
Qualifying in P18 for the Spanish GP in front of his home crowd certainly wasn’t the result Sainz was expecting, though he admits that the crowd cheered him up after a disappointing session.
It remains to be seen whether Sainz and Albon can make a comeback during tomorrow’s Spanish GP after a subpar Qualifying.
The Spaniard is looking forward to giving it a go.
“It’s been amazing to feel the support, and even now, when I was walking back from Q1, the whole grandstands were cheering me up, obviously after a tough day, and I want to thank them for that because it always feels good.
“Tomorrow I’ll try to give them back a good race.”
