Sainz hails Williams for being bold after unusual first day with the FW47
Having completed his first laps with his new car, the FW47 last Friday, four-time F1 race winner Carlos Sainz has hailed Williams for having been bold with the "open" filming day.
Williams Racing’s 2025 challenger, the FW47, made its on-track debut last Friday, successfully completing 200km at the Silverstone circuit. Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz shared driving duties, experiencing this year’s car for the first time.
The day began with a special live broadcast, streamed globally, where the team unveiled the FW47 and celebrated the team’s new title partnership with Atlassian. Williams welcomed partners, media and 47 loyal Williams fans from across the globe, who were selected from more than 17,000 competition entrants.
Atlassian appeared on the car for the first time in a one-off bespoke design, with the official 2025 race livery set to be revealed on 18th February at the F1 75 Live Launch at London’s O2 Arena.
Carlos Sainz took to the track at 10:05am, putting in his first lap in the FW47 livestreamed to the world. Despite typical cold and windy February conditions at Silverstone, the Spaniard successfully completed all his planned laps with no issues, before the Thai driver took to the wheel for the session after lunch, enjoying some brief afternoon sun.
The Madrid-born driver insisted that it was a bold undertaking from his new team to complete the first laps with the FW47 in front of the media and fans as any sort of issues could arise with a new car on its first day of running.
“The first 100 kilometres 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.
"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."
His team-mate Alex Albon insisted that Williams did not experience any issues with the FW47, albeit only the Bahrain pre-season testing will reveal the true characteristics of the new machine.
“I'm really happy. 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!”
