Carlos Sainz thinks that Williams has a stronger race pace than qualifying pace after claiming ninth on the grid for the 2025 United States Grand Prix. Interacting with the media, the Spanish racer explained that changing wind conditions made the qualifying session particularly tough.
After qualifying in the top ten for the sprint shootout and securing a podium in the sprint race earlier in the day, Sainz had a clean build-up to the race weekend. He outqualified his teammate Alex Albon for the third consecutive race. However, in qualifying for the main race, the former Ferrari racer failed to post a faster lap than ninth fastest.
Carlos Sainz noted that although his lap was fine, shifting wind direction made it tough to maximize performance. He added that this season's trend has shown the FW47 tends to deliver better performance over a race distance than a single lap. As per him, ninth at the Circuit of the Americas shows a fair reflection of Williams' qualifying potential. He admitted he was not sure where lap time was lost compared to rivals and felt the sprint qualifying result did not show their true pace. Sainz also noted that the car struggled with wind sensitivity and lacked a fighting edge against its direct competitors at this circuit.
In a conversation with Sportskeeda, he revealed if there was a particular section of the track that suited their car as compared to their competitors:
“Nowhere really. We are P9, which is the average of the season. So it's not like we've been particularly quick here or anything. It's just we had a very solid lap yesterday on the sprint that put us in a good track position to then do something at the start and we finished P3. But I think what is important is that our race pace is always better than our quali pace. Again, I expect tomorrow hopefully to pick up a bit of pace in the race.”
On being asked if he was happy with his qualifying result for the main race, Carlos Sainz said:
“Yeah, I think we had a really solid day today with a very strong sprint quali and sorry sprint and a very good quali, honestly. There's not much in it in that lap. Obviously, then you see half a tenth to the top seven, top six, and you wonder where that half a tenth might be. But honestly, my lap was really clean and it just felt like, from Q1 onwards, we were struggling to improve because the wind picked up and our car, like always when the wind picks up, it's very tricky.”
Carlos Sainz has been going through his strongest form of the season since his podium finish in Baku. Although that result came amid multiple incidents during the race, it gave a timely growth in confidence that he has carried into Singapore and now Austin.
In the United States, the former Ferrari racer showed a greater form than his teammate Alex Albon, who was eliminated in Q1 following his lap time being deleted for exceeding track limits. As it stands, the Spanish racer is looking to recover from ninth spot in Sunday's race.