Carlos Sainz left Singapore with a point, a shrug, and a message: no hard feelings, but Williams has to stop tripping over its own feet on Saturdays.
Both Sainz and Alex Albon were thrown out of qualifying at Marina Bay after the FW47’s DRS flap was found beyond the legal limit — the FIA measured the gap at over 85mm in the deployed state on both cars’ outer sections. Williams accepted the finding, noting that its own pre-qualifying checks showed the wing within tolerance, but the stewards’ gauges did not. Disqualified from the session but cleared to race, Sainz started 18th. Albon, after Williams broke parc fermé to make changes, went from the pit lane. Alpine did the same with Pierre Gasly.
A long, patient first stint — Sainz ran roughly 50 laps on the mediums — set up the salvage: P10 at the flag, one point prised from a weekend that had threatened to unravel. For a driver in his first year at Grove, it was the tidy recovery you’d expect from a four-time Grand Prix winner.
“It’s definitely not hard feelings between any of us,” Sainz said afterwards. “The team acknowledges we’re still making mistakes in these kind of things which can happen. We are in a building year of trying to become a better team and definitely yesterday we all did mistakes. I did mistakes in my quali lap that cost us a Q3. The team did a mistake with the legality of the rear wing on both cars. A mistake with Alex in FP1 with the brakes. As long as we don’t repeat mistakes and we keep learning, that’s the key for us.”
The frustration, though, isn’t just about a scrutineering slip. Sainz has been blunt for weeks: Williams’ single-lap form isn’t where it needs to be. Even with a more stable rear in race trim and gentle tyre use that lets the FW47 stretch a stint, the car doesn’t switch on in qualifying the way it should.
“We keep criticising the tyre preparation,” he said, before shifting the focus. “My feeling after a few races, and the more I understand the car, is that it’s a weakness of the car, not just a weakness of switching on and off the tyre. And probably that weakness in quali is what makes us also very strong in the race and makes us do 50 laps on a medium. So you cannot have it all. We just need to reverse engineer a bit the car and see how we can put ourselves in a better position for Sundays.”
In pure pace terms, Sainz reckoned a clean weekend in Singapore would’ve landed him somewhere around P7–P8. That’s consistent with the pattern this season: when Williams starts in the mix, it stays there. When it doesn’t, Sainz is stuck turning damage limitation into a strategy exercise. He even pointed to Baku as another missed opportunity — had he started near Kimi Antonelli, he felt he could’ve fought the Mercedes rookie on merit.
None of this excuses the rear wing foul-up. At this level, legality lapses are avoidable, and they sting twice on a circuit like Marina Bay, where track position is king and overtaking is a chore. But the bigger picture is still promising for Williams. The FW47’s race pace is no mirage, and the team sits fifth in the Constructors’ standings on 102 points, 30 clear of Racing Bulls. That buffer exists because the car is kind to its tyres, its strategies are generally sharp, and Sainz and Albon have banked solid Sundays.
The next step is obvious — make the car more obedient on a single lap without blunting its long-run strengths. Easier said than done, but that’s the job. As Sainz framed it, this is a building year. The materials are there. The margins, as Singapore reminded everyone, are unforgiving.
A point from 18th softens the blow. It doesn’t hide it.
