Carlos Sainz “fed up” after unlucky Williams streak: “P12 is like retiring”

Carlos Sainz was “fed up” after his 12th-place finish at the British Grand Prix. 

The Spanish driver lamented a tricky few races for the Williams team when “always something happens to us that is out of our control.” Sainz had his former team-mate Charles Leclerc in his sights in the latter part of the race at Silverstone, as the pair battled for eighth place. But the wet conditions saw the Ferrari driver run wide at Stowe and make contact with the Williams.

“It was going well,” Sainz explained to Motorsport.com and other media following the race. “I feel like the whole year so far we were doing everything right. The strategy goals, good driving.

“P7, P8 at the time. Ten laps to go when I was fighting with Charles. I think he was on his out lap on the slicks. He lost control of the car and crashed into me. And that was it. I went back to P12 with a damaged car. And I finished P12. Again, very unlucky.

“A bit fed up with this situation where always something happens to us that is out of our control. No offence to Charles, this always can happen to any driver. Just upset with the fact that it happened to me today again when we were about to have a clean weekend and a clean race.”

The 30-year-old added that finishing outside of the points in 12th was a similar feeling to retiring from a race. 

“No, for me at P12 it’s like retiring,” he added. “In the position we are, it feels like a retirement, especially because we were running P7, P8. We have done everything right. Yes, maybe the others took a bit more gambles on the strategy calls. And maybe they will look into what Nico did. And Stroll, I think, did a couple of also good calls maybe.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Colin McMaster / LAT Images via Getty Images

“But we did a very solid race with management of the pace and the race. So we’re in the ideal position to score a top seven, top eight result. And sadly, I think with Charles, he lost control of the car and took me out. It’s what it is. There’s nothing we can do.

“But I welcome this two-week break to see if something changes in my luck. So we can start having an F1 season. Because this has been everything but good so far.”

This comes after a string of misfortune for the Grove outfit. Following a strong start to the season, the James Vowles-led squad has struggled with reliability issues, leading to several race retirements. The Austrian Grand Prix saw Sainz fail to start due to a fire in his rear brakes and his team-mate Alex Albon retired for other unknown issues.