Williams had a complicated Saturday in the qualifying session for the Formula 1 Hungarian GP. Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were eliminated in Q1 and will occupy almost the last positions on the starting grid, in 18th and 19th places, after a weekend marked by distinct problems on both sides of the garage.
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The result confirmed the expectations of the British team, which already anticipated facing difficulties in Budapest. In addition to the lack of performance, the drivers reported significant changes in car behavior between sessions, making it even harder to find a competitive setup.
Sainz revealed that he faced problems with the rear of the car throughout the weekend. According to the Spaniard, the inconsistency in the car’s balance compromised the predictability needed to attack fast laps in the qualifying session.
“It was a difficult weekend. The car’s balance was different in each session, and on my side of the garage, we had some problems with the rear of the car, which made it unpredictable and difficult to find the ideal setup,” he stated.
The Spanish driver believes that the performance achieved represented the limit of what was possible to achieve under the presented conditions: “Even if we had optimized everything, I think this was the maximum position we could achieve today thinking about tomorrow’s grid,” he said.
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Albon also highlighted the difficulties faced by Williams, and admitted that the team has not yet been able to identify the origin of the differences in car behavior between one session and another. The Thai-British driver stated that the team already better understands which components are not delivering the expected performance, but is still looking for answers to explain the problem.
“We expected a difficult weekend, but the car was very different from yesterday and we are still trying to understand the reason for these inconsistencies between sessions. In recent races, we have been able to better understand which parts are not working, but it is still difficult to answer why,” he commented.
The driver continued, highlighting that Aston Martin’s evolution also influenced the weekend’s scenario: “Aston took a big step forward this weekend, something we needed to take into account. Carlos and I had different problems over the last few days, we will analyze everything before the race and see what we can do,” concluded Sainz’s teammate.
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