Carlos Sainz Disappointed With Williams After Q1 Exit – ‘Not Here to be P19’

Williams Racing Formula One driver Carlos Sainz has shared his disappointment after retiring in Q1 of the Austrian Grand Prix qualifying session. The Spaniard reported damage to his car, and as a result, he will start the race on Sunday from the 19th position.

Sainz said on the team radio that his FW47 F1 car was “undriveable” and later confirmed that the car’s floor had been damaged. Explaining the setback to the media after qualifying, the Williams driver said:

“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 qualy, with pulling massively and the braking to one side. With the three big braking zones here, I was always going to struggle with that.”

While Q3 would have been a challenging feat to achieve, Sainz confirmed that the car’s pace was enough to make it to Q2. He added:

“Given where Alex was and we’d been on par all weekend, I think Q2 was definitely possible. Q3 was more of an ask, given our soft tyre struggles. But Q2 should have been easy, top end of Q2. Since yesterday, we’ve seen we have the race pace of the midfield, but for some reason, in our soft tyres, we always struggle.”

Sainz was asked if he felt something was wrong with the car when he set off. He said:

“Yeah, with the brakes, yes. With the floor, it was not clear at the beginning, but then the last couple of laps, there was for sure something, as you could see on the onboard.”

The 30-year-old driver confirmed that the brakes were swapped after the third practice session, but complained about a pulling problem while on track in qualifying. He explained:

“We changed the brakes from FP3 to qualy, like we always do, and we put what we think is a new set, but something must have not been correct, given the amount of pulling that I had to one side every time I hit the brakes. So, yes, we need to investigate what. The floor, I think, must have happened during qualy at some point. Must have something fallen off or dropped something.”

Sainz is unsure about the gravity of the problem and whether he will have to start the race from the pit lane if Williams works on the car in parc ferme. He said:

“We’ll see. I am not here to test. I am not here to be P19 for sure, so we need to start investigating what’s going on. But at the same time, you know, this, how do you say, this bad run of races is happening, and we need as a team to push together and see what we can do better as a whole.

“Especially when it comes to qualifying and the soft tyre, because honestly, my race pace is good. Every time I’m driving under normal circumstances, I’m quick. But yeah, just putting things together.”