Carlos Sainz continues to tread water since joining Williams, and might face a tough time at this week’s Austrian Grand Prix due to a persistent issue with their 2025 car.
The 30-year-old moved to Grove ahead of the 2025 F1 season after Ferrari booted Sainz out of Maranello to make a space for Lewis Hamilton to join. Yet while Alex Albon has scored 42 points from the first 10 rounds, Sainz has only scored 13 as he adapts to the Williams FW47.
Sainz is also still yet to finish a Grand Prix higher than the P8 results the Spaniard secured in Saudi Arabia and Imola. His last point even only arrived thanks to Lando Norris crashing into Oscar Piastri during the Canadian Grand Prix, which shuffled Sainz from P11 into 10th place.
The Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve meeting proved to be a particularly annoying race for the outfit. While Williams targeted a top-five finish in the Canadian GP ahead of the race, Albon retired on Lap 46 of 70 following an engine failure. Sainz would even qualify in just P17 in Montreal.
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James Vowles admits Williams’ infrastructure is holding them back from fixing their cooling issues
Despite his poor starting position, Sainz was ‘completely frustrated’ at being unable to push in the Canadian GP as the Williams racer moved through the field. The four-time Grand Prix winner struggled with overheating brakes as the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is very demanding.
But a much bigger problem for Williams was that Albon retired from the Canadian GP as his car overheated. It was not even the first time this season that Williams have struggled with cooling issues, and team boss James Vowles notes their infrastructure is holding them back.
Vowles told The Race: “This is a problem that we’ve taken a number of remedial steps in order to counter this year. So, have we got it right? No. And I always go back to what you need is the right level of simulation to actually drive where you should be.
“What we’re doing at the moment is discovering these issues either in VTT [virtual test track] testing or in real track testing, and that’s not the way to do it. But we don’t simply have the infrastructure behind us at the level it needs to be.
“At the moment, we’re using human beings to try to estimate where we should be, rather than real tools in order to determine where we should be. And that is always going to lead you to poor results.
“We have some fixes on the way in the next few races, but it’s more learning on track and then responding to that learning, and so therefore we are behind the curve.”
Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon may fear Williams’ cooling issues at the Austrian Grand Prix
Photo by Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images
Vowles admitting that Williams have failed to fix their cooling issues will not be music to the ears of Sainz and Albon ahead of the Austrian GP this weekend. The track temperature last time out in Montreal was nearly 50° and forecasts for the Red Bull Ring are set to exceed it.
Forecasts for the 2025 Austrian GP show temperatures of 29° for qualifying on Saturday and the weather will only get hotter for race day, with temperatures of 31° expected for the start of Sunday’s meeting. So, Williams’ cooling may be put to the test in Spielberg this weekend.
Vowles has changed a lot of the infrastructure at Williams since the 46-year-old, who signed a new long-term contract last week, replaced Jost Capito in January 2023. But there are still some big changes he wants to create and seemingly needs to, given their cooling problems.
