Williams is braced for a bleak Spanish Grand Prix by its current standards as even its much-improved 2025 Formula 1 car is proving incompatible with the Barcelona circuit.
A revived Williams is comfortably fifth in the championship, has qualified in the top 10 with at least one car at every race this season, and scored points every weekend except for Bahrain where both drivers were compromised by factors out of their control.
But the Spanish GP weekend marks a return to a track that has been very poor for the team in the ground-effect era, as it ruthlessly exposes an inherent Williams limitation in long corners, especially ones where brake pressure and steering lock are applied together.
Recent Williams Q1 exits in Spain
2022: 19th/20th +1.784s
2023: 18th/20th +1.126s
2024: 19th/20th +1.010s
"Looking at the corners, it's exactly the kind of corners where we knew we were going to struggle with the characteristics of our car," said Carlos Sainz.
"Right from the start in FP1 I felt how tricky it was, and we tried to do some set-up changes for FP2, they seemed to go in a good direction, but for some reason we still didn't find much laptime and we're in that battle towards the back of the midfield.
"We need to see how to take another step because clearly right now we are not looking like a Q3 contender."
If anything, Williams only has a marginal Q2 car. Sainz was 15th in FP1 and 14th in FP2, one place ahead of Alex Albon, who had to give his car to Williams junior Victor Martins for the team to fulfill one of its mandatory rookie driver allocations in the opening session.
Sainz tested a 2023 Williams at Barcelona in pre-season, so had an idea of what to expect. And Albon has never qualified better than 18th for Williams at Barcelona.
Both drivers were therefore already aware that this weekend could be a struggle even with a much improved 2025 car, which team boss James Vowles previously said had reduced its "9/10" problem down to a "4/10".
In Barcelona FP2, compared to midfield leader Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin, Sainz was slower everywhere except Turn 1 and the exit of Turn 10, with a particularly big loss of more than two tenths of a second through the very long Turn 4 right-hander, and a similar margin through Turn 12.
And on Friday in Spain, Vowles said simply: "Barcelona has not been a good track to us for many many years and I think the same is true this year, where we're not quite as competitive as we have been."
Williams has bossed the midfield at times this year but has really excelled through being consistently at or close to the very front while others have more varied fortunes.
Given the competitiveness of the midfield, though, even the reduced extent of its inherent car problem comes at a painful price.
"We knew we were going to struggle this weekend," Albon admitted. "I think there was a little bit of hope that it wouldn't be as bad as it is. Let's see how it goes.
"I've only done one session, so there's a bit of catch-up to do, but generally speaking…we've definitely got a better car than last year. Just it's not good enough at the minute.
"We can do some changes. I don't think the car is perfect, and obviously there's a lot more to come out from me as well. So let's see how it goes.
"But yes, I think for now, it's looking like it's going to be a tough weekend."
When asked for where he expected to fight, Albon half-joked he only hoped "not at the back". And even if there is a chance to make progress and try to get Williams's current point-scoring run going even if it is for the minor positions, Sainz has emphatically ruled out replicating a peak like Miami or Imola, where Williams was legitimately faster than Ferrari.
"We seem to be one second off the pace every lap that we do here," he said.
"So, a lot of things to understand, things to work on. But we don't give up.
"We will try different things with both cars, Alex and I, and see if we can find something that gives us a bit of an edge."
