Sainz beyond the penalty: “We need to understand what’s happening to our car”

‘Made in Grove’ project failed There were good conditions for Williams to achieve a points finish at its home GP at Silverstone, where it participated in a special livery. Above all, the introduction of a new package of updates, but the outcome of the race proved disastrous for both drivers, starting with Alex Albon. Albon out Forced to return to the pits after a contact at the start due to the replacement of the front wing, the Anglo-Thai was then unable to finish the GP, retiring due to a technical problem: “Unfortunately we had a bad start and made a mistake on the first lap which caused damage to the front wing, so we were forced to return to the pits early – he recalled – after which, we were stuck in a series of blue flags and were unable to make up ground on the group, so we changed strategy and we used the rest of the race as a test session to collect more data on the front wing update we brought this weekend. The test sessions seem to sum up our season so far, but we remain focused on collecting as much data and understanding it so that when we bring the updates later, we will be in a better position. It’s frustrating, but we will debrief and look at Spa in two weeks’ time. Sainz’s thoughts The one who reached the finish line was Carlos Sainz, who initially ranked in 12th place. However, at the end of the race, the Spaniard was penalized one lap for overtaking the Safety Car with the certainty of being included in the list of lapped drivers, when in fact he was not. For this reason, the former Ferrari driver dropped to 17th position: “This weekend was much more difficult than we expected and hoped for. We need to focus on what’s wrong with the car and analyze why the update didn’t give the desired results, so it’s a wake-up call for us. In the race, I had an excellent start today too and overtook all the cars I needed to get into the points. I tried to defend tenth position with all my strength, but we simply didn’t have the pace to keep the competition at bay. I feel like we are at a high level and the team has also done everything to get here with two front wings, which is reassuring and positive to see. However, now we need a more in-depth analysis to understand what is happening to our car, because we are missing too much in terms of performance.”

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-07-07 12:00:00