Carlos Sainz Jr. reports a ‘smooth’ first day in the Williams F1 FW47
Williams launched their 2025 challenger and both Carlos Sainz Jr. and Alexander Albon are pleased with the results
When you think about it, Carlos Sainz Jr. calling his first laps in the Williams FW47 “smooth” just makes sense.
Williams launched the FW47, the team’s challenger for the 2025 Formula 1 season, at a special event at Silverstone on Friday, the site of the British Grand Prix. The team unveiled the FW47 in a bespoke one-off livery that the team will use at this season’s British Grand Prix and will debut their main look next week at F1’s first-ever season launch event at The O2 in London.
Following the unveiling, both Sainz and teammate Alexander Albon put the FW47 through a shakedown session, with Sainz driving in the morning and Albon in the afternoon. While February at Silverstone does not offer up the ideal testing conditions, Williams and Albon reported that the sun did peek through the clouds after lunch for his time in the cockpit.
Williams Team Principal James Vowles praised the “progress” the team has made this off-season, as well as Williams’ “formidable” driver lineup.
“The first run of the FW47 is the result of tens of thousands of hours of work and a moment of immense pride that symbolises the progress we are making at Atlassian Williams Racing,” said Vowles in the team’s media report. “We rolled out the car at the precise moment we said we would, on live television, with a formidable new driver line-up and a fantastic new title partner in Atlassian. There is a lot to look forward to in 2025 and I can’t wait to go racing next month.”
Chief Engineer Dave Robson offered some technical feedback, noting that the FW47 and its systems are “behaving as intended” and that the team was able to complete the planned program without issue.
“Today we launched the FW47 at Silverstone and had the opportunity to shakedown the new car and to check that the systems are behaving as intended.
“Carlos and Alex shared the driving through the day, and between them were able to complete the permitted 200km without issue. The car ran well and, having completed a few careful laps to check that everything was working correctly, we were able to push the car hard and confirm that there were no major problems,” continued Robson. “Inevitably, we found a few very minor issues, but these will be quickly resolved before we arrive in Bahrain, and they didn’t affect the running today.
“In the cold conditions, and using the Pirelli promotional tires, it is impossible to assess the performance of the FW47, however, the telemetry and driver feedback suggests that the basic characteristics of the car are very close to expectation and there are no immediate handling concerns.”
Robson believes Friday’s session puts Williams on a path to arrive in Melbourne for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on the front foot.
“We now have a few days to use the experience from today to [finalize] our testing plan for Bahrain,” added Robson. “Now that we are confident that the car will run well, we are in a great position to maximize our time in Bahrain and to ensure that we arrive in Melbourne ready to start the 2025 season strongly.”
Both drivers were overwhelmingly positive in their post-session reports.
“I’m really happy,” said Albon. “Normally this weather makes the car feel good, and it did today. We won’t know for sure what the car is like until Bahrain, but the car was reliable, and we put on a great show for our partners and fans, so I hope everyone enjoyed that. Roll on Bahrain!”
Then there is Sainz, who joined the team following his departure from Ferrari, brought about by Lewis Hamilton’s stunning decision to leave Mercedes and join the Scuderia for the 2025 campaign. Sainz, who has earned the nickname “Smooth Operator” over his time in the sport, had this to say about the first laps in the FW47:
“The first 100 kilometers in the FW47 are done and it has been a smooth day. We managed to complete all the run plan without any issues, and I got my first proper feeling for the car,” said Sainz. “It was a bold statement from Williams to show the first lap of this new car to our partners, the media, and our fans, and it went very well. Good job to everyone back at Grove – now we’re ready for the season to start.”