Voules: You will see soon that Carlos will reach the required level.
Carlos Sainz is still inferior to Alex Elbon in speed, including at Saturday's practice session in Suzuka, where the Spanish Williams racer showed 11th time, while his team-mate rose to 7th place in the morning session protocol.
The process of adapting to the FW47 continues, but James Voules is not worried. According to the Williams team principal, he would be very surprised if Carlos needed no more than five races to fully get used to driving this car.
"We plan to change the chassis of both cars, because they actually rotate over the course of the season," Vaulz said on Sky Sports after Saturday's practice session. "But here's what we found out in China with Carlos: after Ferrari, he still has a very specific driving style, and I think it shows one of the our weaknesses.
The Ferrari car allows the driver to load the front axle much more than ours, and Alex naturally manages to cope with this, or he has learned this in previous years. But the good news is that Carlos isn't losing much this weekend, and you've seen it. Anyway, we've got something sorted out, and I just want to make sure that it's confirmed during qualifying.
Carlos's difficulties are exactly the same as Hamilton's in Ferrari, except that they manifest themselves differently in the case of Lewis. All this is explained by the direction of work with the car that a particular team chooses, the level of downforce and the peculiarities of the car's behavior on the track, because it reflects the differences in the chosen basic concept of the chassis and the ideology embodied in it.
I can assure you that there is no difference between the cars of the two Williams drivers. During the three stages of the season, Alex and Carlos piloted cars based on three different chassis.
I would be very surprised if it takes Carlos more than five races to fully adapt to the FW47. It is unlikely that he will need more time, given his way of thinking and attitude to the matter. He's doing his best to adapt his driving style, and I know that. You will see soon that he will reach the required level."
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