Carlos Sainz’s struggles of late in this year’s F1 season took another hit at the Austrian Grand Prix, where the Williams driver suffered a brake issue and unexpected floor damage on his FW47 that led to his early Q1 exit in qualifying.
The Spaniard, who has now failed to progress past the first segment of Saturday’s grid-defining session for the third consecutive race, will line up 19th on the grid on Sunday’s grid at the Red Bull Ring for Sunday’s Grand Prix — seven positions behind his Williams teammate Alex Albon.
After struggling throughout Q1, Sainz voiced his frustration over team radio as he failed to improve on a second run despite bolting on a fresh set of soft tyres. He immediately suspected something was wrong with the car.
“There is damage in the car, the car is undriveable,” told his race engineer. “When I say undriveable, it’s pulling under braking, no load in high speed, undriveable.”
Elaborating on his issues after the session, Sainz confirmed his suspicions, revealing that Williams had identified the problem.
“We put new brakes on for quali like we always do, and as soon as I went out of the pits the car was, when I was braking hard, pulling to one side,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“We could see I had quite a lot of damage to the floor, which I expected given how bad the car was to drive.
“In the end, obviously not happy — too many issues, too many problems, and a Q1 exit.”
A Pattern of Struggles for the Spaniard
So far, Sainz’s maiden campaign with Williams has been a troubled affair, with little to show for efforts. The 30-year-old’s qualifying record versus Albon now sits at 7 to 4 in favor of his teammate.
“We’ll see tomorrow. Today was not our day — definitely way too many problems again in qualifying. We need to find out why we are accumulating so many problems,” said the former Ferrari driver.
Read also: Vowles' new Williams deal ‘made to be’ as Mercedes rumors fadeDespite his lowly grid position, Sainz remains hopeful that Sunday will bring a turnaround of sorts, citing his Williams’ promising race pace during earlier sessions. “But I’ve been the fastest of the midfield in race pace, which gives us encouragement for tomorrow, although we’re definitely starting a bit too far back,” he concluded.
With Williams currently embroiled in a tight midfield battle, the team will be banking on Sainz’s experience and long-run pace to claw back points in Sunday’s race – but the pressure is mounting.
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