Carlos Sainz on “disastrous weekend” for Williams as team searches for answers

Carlos Sainz has spoken out on Williams’ “disastrous weekend” at the Austrian Grand Prix, which saw him out of the race on the formation lap followed by his team-mate Alex Albon also retiring.

The troubles for Sainz began in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring after damage to his FW47 and brake issues meant he was only able to secure the 19th position on the grid. He explained at the time, “Yeah, we must have picked up damage on the floor, which they just confirmed to me that we did.

“I don’t know exactly where, because it’s not like I went off the track, but something must have fallen off and we lost a lot of downforce.

“But on top of that, we had a brake issue from the beginning of quali, pulling massively and the braking to one side. With the three big braking zones here, I was always going to struggle with that.”

Come race day, the Spanish driver took to the starting grid but was unable to get the car moving for the formation lap. After eventually managing to reset it, he accelerated away, but the delay caused an aborted start. The 30-year-old driver pulled up at the end of the pit lane and his rear brakes set on fire – his race was over before the lights had gone out. 

While speaking to DAZN afterwards, he explained that the team needs to ascertain whether there was a correlation between the issues on Sunday and those on Saturday.

“Well, we have to see if there is some kind of relationship between yesterday and today,” he explained. “The fact is that another problem that we have to see exactly what could have happened. The car was braked from behind when I started the engine and I could not move.

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images

“I managed to reset it, I did a lap and it stopped again from the back and we had to retire. But yes, many things are happening to us lately.

“The truth is that this first half of the year is being a little heavy in that sense because things keep happening to us, but at some point all this bad luck will end and things will start to work out.”

He continued, “Yes, anyway as a team also now we have had a problem with Alex by the looks of it. So we have to find out why we are having so many problems both in qualifying and in the race.

“Because it’s already several weekends that we have brake problems, engine problems, overheating. Sometimes we are a little bit weak in that sense.

“Yes, very poor, really. All weekend with problems and now both cars are out,” he concluded. “It’s a bit of a disastrous weekend for us, but we have to grit our teeth and see how we can improve.”

The Grove outfit has confirmed that it is investigating the issues with Albon’s car.

“A very disappointing day,” team chief James Vowles explained in a statement. “We had the pace today to comfortably finish sixth, and yet we walk away with a double DNF. We had two different issues that need to be understood to make sure we rectify them going forward.

“We’re on a good journey towards building a fast car but we’re not complete yet in terms of operation and reliability. We have 13 races in front of us and they’re key to make sure that we’re able to fight at the front with the very best.”

Photos from Austrian GP – Race