Carlos Sainz receives the latest Williams upgrades in Baku practice

Thursday, 24 September 2026:

- Free Practice 1: P12, 1:46.893, 22 laps

- Free Practice 2: P17, 1:46.221, 22 laps

• Carlos Sainz covered 44 laps around the Baku City Circuit in the first day of the Azerbaijan GP. He was able to work across the three tyre compounds available for the weekend and also utilise the latest upgrades of the FW48.
• The Williams race driver did five laps on Hard tyres in Free Practice 1, but he was forced to stop due to a radio issue. When he returned to the pits, the team was not waiting for him due to the failure of the communication system, which led to the brakes catching fire.
• Later on, Carlos used the Soft tyre to set his fastest time (1:46.893).
• In Free Practice 2, the Spanish race driver covered 15 laps on Mediums before returning to the Soft option to improve his morning time by six tenths (1:46.221).
• Carlos feels that the latest updates of the FW48, which include a new chassis, have improved its competitiveness. Still, he says that they still have not been able to assess them in detail.

QUOTES:

"Today felt like a step forward as we expected - there were no massive surprises. Unfortunately we had quite a scrappy day with a lack of running in FP1 and FP2 because of some issues with the car, including the brakes. So we didn't get all the laps in to evaluate everything that we would have liked, but we still have FP3 to do it. In general I feel a bit better with the car and it seems like we’re a bit closer to the midfield. I feel like I'm in a good place and now we need to make the right steps going into tomorrow".

COMING UP:

Friday, 25 September 2026:

- Free Practice 3: 12:30 local time (10:30 CEST)

- Qualifying: 16:00 local time (14:00 CEST)