Tag Archives: Sainz

September 1, 2025 · 4:47 pm

How Sainz and Lawson lost their shot at Zandvoort points – and blamed each other

Their collision was already costly, and then a penalty rubbed salt into Sainz’s wounds

While some drivers enjoyed perfect afternoons in Zandvoort for Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson a clash after the first safety car restart proved very expensive.

Both men had to crawl round to the pits with punctures, while Sainz also needed a new nose.

They both dropped to the back of the field, and then to add insult to injury the FIA stewards deemed that Sainz was handed a 10-second penalty, which he had to take at a subsequent pit stop.

They decreed “that car 30 had the right to the corner and therefore car 55 was wholly or predominantly to blame for the collision,” a view that Sainz inevitably disagreed with, and which left him fuming.

Having called Lawson “stupid” at the time he reined it in a bit after the race. However he hadn’t changed his perspective on the shunt which he felt had cost him the chance to finish as high as P5, the position occupied by team mate Alex Albon, and who has behind him when the collision occurred.

“It’s a corner that allows two cars to race each other without really having to have any unnecessary contact,” he said when I asked him about it. “But with Liam, it always seems to be very difficult to make that happen.

“He always seems to prefer to have a bit of contact and risk a DNF or a puncture like we did, than to actually accept having two cars side-by-side, which hopefully it will come with more experience to him, because he knows he’s putting too many points on the line just for an unnecessary manoeuvre, like he did.

“But on top of that, to then get a 10-second penalty for it, I think it’s a complete joke. Honestly, I need to go now to the stewards just to get an explanation, to see what is their point of view of the incident.

“Because it’s unacceptable, I think it’s not the level of stewarding that F1 needs if they are really considering that to be a 10-second penalty. On my behalf, I think it’s a serious matter now that concerns me as a driver, as a GPDA director, and something that I will make sure I raise.”

He added: “It’s something that is very concerning. I’m talking as calmly and with eloquently and trying to pick my words in the best possible way, without trying to put here about a bad word for anyone.

“But what I’ve seen today and what I’ve suffered today is something that concerns me, for myself, but for the other drivers and for motorsport in general, if they really think this is how a penalty should be applied to the guy that is around the outside, I don’t know.”

He was adamant that Lawson was at fault, and that he wasn’t even attempting to pass at that point.

“I wasn’t even really trying to race Liam that hard. I just had a gap around the outside, and so I’m going to start getting him a bit out of position for Turn 2, Turn 3. I wasn’t trying to pass him around the outside.

“I was just trying to have a side-by-side with him to then get him a bit of line for Turn 2, Turn 3, and then suddenly I have a contact, which caught me completely off-guard and by surprise.

“You need to pick your battles. And probably Liam in his first years now, if he’s deciding to have a bit this approach of crash or no overtake, it’s something I’ll keep in keep in mind.

“But the story of my season so far again, a race where I could have finished P5 where Alex is, another 10 points that for something that I cannot understand and is out of our hands.”

Regarding the contact he added: “I’ve raced Lewis, I’ve raced Checo, I’ve raced Oscar, I’ve raced Charles, I’ve raced so many drivers doing the move I did today, so many other cars in the last four years – at the start, racing around inside, outside, high banking, low banking, without really having contact.

“If the guy in the inside doesn’t want to have contact, if the guy in the inside decides to open the wheel and create a contact or risk a contact, then it’s on their behalf, but for the guy on the outside to receive a penalty for it is what concerns me the most.”

Inevitably the two drivers had opposing views on the contact and how it should have been treated by the FIA.

Lawson wasn’t impressed when I told him how unhappy Sainz was with what had transpired.

“I’m sure he’s not,” said the Kiwi. “Obviously I’m not stoked either, it ruined my day. The rules are written as they are, and we know how they’re written.

“And I’ve been on the receiving end this year as well, where I was going for an overtake and thought that I should be given space, and I wasn’t, and I got a penalty.

“So it’s something that we learn from. We all know this. It’s lap one on a restart, it’s super slippery, cold tyres. It’s fine to go for the move, but it’s just risky. And we made concept, which is not ideal, but that’s why he got a penalty.”

Lawson was adamant that he wasn’t the guilty party.

“I think he was overtaking me today, and I also think he got a penalty today. So he can make all the comments in the world he likes. I wish he’d just come and talk to me about it rather than telling everybody else.

“But if it was my fault, I would have got a penalty. I understand his frustration. We don’t want to be in these situations. And as I said, I’ve been on the receiving end as well. It’s just the way the rules are written. And we all know that.”

The collision proved just as costly for Lawson as it was for Sainz, and while he eventually recovered to P12 he missed a shot at finishing within a couple of places of team mate Isack Hadjar.

“We were I guess behind George before everything happened. And the car has been very, very strong. So there’s no reason why we wouldn’t have come home with very strong points today.

“We were just consistent in the first stint, sort of managing. A restart is always aggressive and tough. And obviously it’s time for opportunities. But something that risky when we’re both in the points like that, it just sucks….”

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July 2, 2025 · 3:39 pm

Can Williams reboot its 2025 F1 season after enduring a nightmare month?

Sainz is adamant that the team has to regroup after recent struggles

For the Williams Racing Formula 1 team the month of June turned into something of a recurring nightmare.

Having logged an impressive 54 points in the first eight races of the 2025 season Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz earned just a single further point between them in the three events held last month since their double score in Monaco in May.

Sometimes luck just seems to go against you, and much as Sauber enjoyed a near perfect run over those same three races while logging 20 points, so Williams has been facing an ongoing scenario of what can go wrong going wrong.

Indeed Albon posted a remarkable three retirements in a row, with accident damage in Spain followed by PU overheating issues in both Canada and Austria.

Meanwhile Sainz failed even to start last weekend after an issue with the brakes, something of a recurrent problem for him in recent weekends.

The frustration is that despite the team struggling to fully optimise the FW47 on qualifying on soft tyres good points have still been on offer.

In Austria Albon appeared to have fortune on his side as he jumped from 12th to seventh at the start, and had he not hit trouble he would have had a good chance of finishing sixth.

It didn’t happen however, and this week the team has faced some soul-searching as it tries to put things right for Silverstone.

For Sainz not even starting at the Red Bull Ring was a painful if familiar experience, given that he’s had similar experiences previously at both McLaren and Ferrari.

This time the rear brakes stuck on, which triggered an aborted start as he was not able to get away on the formation lap. When he did get round to the pits the brakes were cooked, and that was that.

“I don’t know why this happens to me as a driver so often,” he said when I asked him about not getting a chance to race. “It happened a few times that I don’t even get to start the race and yeah, today just a different issue.

“We couldn’t change the brakes [before the race]. We had a pretty big issue yesterday in quali, but we managed to correct it. So laps to the grid, the car was fine. I was ready to race, but then suddenly, on the lap to grid, I found we had another issue.

“The first gear didn’t go in because the rear brakes were stuck. And then I understood, and I power cycled the car and tried to get going, but in the end the issue came back, I got fire, and that was it.”

Sainz was adamant that there was performance in the car, despite his lowly P19 on the grid.

“Again today we I think we would have been quickest midfield car on the race run, but we struggled with soft tyres, for sure. Since I was P1 in Q2 in Imola, I don’t know what has happened, what’s changed in the car, but something in qualifying on soft tyres doesn’t seem to click, so we need to keep working on that.

“Then we are still very quick on Sundays, like we saw in Canada, we saw today, we saw in Monaco even, we can have good race pace. So we have a strong car, strong package. We just need to execute weekends, and stop having issues.”

Any retirement is costly when the midfield battle is so close, especially in an era when a lot of teams are showing bulletproof reliability.

Williams sits in fifth place and still has a decent advantage over the rest of the midfield, but that gap could disappear.

“Clearly, too many issues yesterday, too many issues today,” said Sainz as he reflected on recent form. “We’re having a tough run as a team, very scrappy first half of the season.

“And I must say, even if we are very quick as a team, and I think I’ve adapted quickly to the car, we seem to have too many problems when it counts and when it matters.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s reliability, strategy or weekend execution. So time to regroup. It’s true, we don’t have much time, but Silverstone, it’s our home Grand Prix, and we need to regroup to see what we can do better.”

Expanding on the theme he added: “It just shows we are going through a tough period in a tough time for the team, and we need to understand why, because clearly it’s costing us a lot of points.

“We have a decent car. We haven’t upgraded it much, but we have an upgrade coming soon.

“We just need to get better at executing weekends. People were asking me before if it’s related to focusing on next year, and it’s not, it should be completely unrelated.

“The way you execute a race weekend, and reliability-wise, has nothing to do with putting the focus on next year.

“So we should use these issues we’re having this year, and all of these problems, to learn as a team to execute better weekends.”

Sainz admitted that he and Albon both have to play their part in trying to improve things.

“All of the big leaders of the team, we need to take responsibility and leadership,” he said. “We all need to take also accountability in what we are doing wrong as a team.

“This is one aspect of the team that I fully back, and I fully trust that we are capable of doing that.

“Now we need to test ourselves to see how quick as a team we can respond to these issues, and come back stronger, because I’m sure there’s going to be responsibility and leadership. I’m sure there’s going to be. So it’s just a matter of in testing times, how quick you can recover from all these issues, and it will put us to test.”

For Albon the Austrian retirement was particularly frustrating as he’d taken advantage of the Antonelli/Verstappen clash to jump up the order, and it all seemed to be going his way.

“Obviously a little bit fortunate,” said the Thai/British driver. “The waves parted a little bit, but we were in the right place at the right time, and we had a good car, had a nice overtake on Pierre, and were pulling away from the cars behind.

“I was actually catching George towards the end of my stint. And then we covered off Gasly, I think, and then we ran into the issues.

“Maybe something after the pit stop just picked up. It looks similar to Canada, if anything. Yeah, we need to review it. Obviously, we’ve had three DNFs a row now, so we’re lacking the mileage at the moment.

“I don’t know. It’s the same car as it was at the beginning of the year, and it was a lot more reliable at the beginning of the year. So I’m not sure if it’s temperatures that we’re running at that’s making us struggle.”

Albon noted before the weekend started that after getting too hot the Montreal PU would be tested on Friday, and it seemed to be healthy: “We did long running in traffic as well, just a double check, triple check, and then we come to the race, and it’s still an issue.”

He agrees that the team has to get its act together this weekend, not least because it’s a circuit that should suit the car.

“I’m a little bit worried. I don’t know what we can do. We can’t afford it to happen in Silverstone, because I think that’s a good track for us.

“We’ve missed out on good points today, with all the DNFs happening to the top teams. So yeah, very frustrating. I’m not sure the next track being a home track, if that helps us a bit, just with efficiency in getting things to the car. But we’ll deep dive, and try to find a solution.”

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June 28, 2025 · 11:25 am

Why Vowles will stay at Williams for the long haul

Vowles has already moved Williams forward – now he has the time to complete the job

The recent confirmation that James Vowles has signed a long-term contract with the Williams Formula 1 team hardly came as a surprise given the upward trajectory of the organisation since he took over some two and a half years ago.

Ten races into the 2025 season and Williams lies fifth in the World Championship, with a relatively comfortable margin over those behind.

Vowles was responsible for the extraordinary coup of getting Carlos Sainz onboard alongside Alex Albon has already paid dividends, even if the Spaniard hasn’t had much luck thus far.

Clearly owners Dorilton have decided that they made the right call in headhunting Vowles, and they want to ensure that he is now in it for the long haul.

However the real focus of the ongoing rebuilding process is on 2026, and that’s what he can perhaps really be judged on.

What the long-term deal also does is put an end to any speculation that Vowles was using Williams as a training ground in preparation for a potential move back to Mercedes as successor to Toto Wolff. That is definitely not on the agenda, and for both sides agreeing to extend his stay in Grove was a no-brainer.

“I feel really at home here,” he says. “I loved my time at Mercedes. Mercedes is a fantastic place, but it just feels like home here. And what I think we have to do, first and foremost, we have to recognise that I wasn’t a TP. It’s the first job I’ve taken in that regard.

“So it’s a large step up, and I had to prove to myself and prove to everyone that I was able to do it. And I think we’re seeing evidence that it’s okay! I’m here to win World Championships, and the next step is the commitment to do we all agree that that’s what we want to be doing, and joined up in that regard?

“And the answer is yes. So it wasn’t even a millisecond. I feel at home. This is where I want to be. This is where I want my career to be, and I can see myself being here for the remainder of my career, that’s how comfortable I am.”

He insists that he didn’t speak to Wolff about his future: “There was no other person I called on the grid, really, when I was in discussion over this.

“Toto is an incredible individual, but he’s also very comfortable where he is at the moment, and wants to be there, I believe, for many, many more years. So that direction parted three years ago. And that’s it.”

For Vowles the promotion to team principal represented a huge step. As head of strategy at Mercedes he obviously carried a lot of responsibility, and at the time he left his role had expanded into other areas of management.

However being put in full charge of a business worth a billion plus by its owners is another level, and he admits that he feels the weight of being responsible for such a big organisation.

“There’s some amazing things about it,” he says. “You pinch yourself that you’re in charge of 1100 people, and that a word that you use, or ten words that you use, can drive the direction of that many individuals.

“You pinch yourself that you’re in charge of a multi-billion dollar company in that regard, because it isn’t something that most people will have access to. But here’s the difference to most other companies, you’re in front of 70 million people every weekend, so you’re adjudicated and judged.

“I think the biggest thing for me is I thought you would have more discomfort on what you’re doing daily, and question what you’re doing daily. And for me personally, I don’t.

“It feels so comfortable that I don’t even think about what the external ramifications are. I think those are the bits that no one can prepare you for. It’s it was described to me once as the view from the top is incredible, but it’s lonely at the same time. And that’s probably the right way of summarising it.”

The team may have a cushion in fifth place at the moment, but there are still 14 races to go, and a few good results for Aston Martin, Haas, Racing Bulls, Sauber and Alpine.

While everyone has turned their focus to 2026 R&D the consensus is that Williams did it earlier than most, and that’s perhaps been reflected by an improvement in form from Sauber and Aston in particular.

In the last couple of races little has gone right for Williams, but Vowles plays down the suggestion that

“In Montreal on Friday, I had a number of messages from other teams going, Jesus, you’re quick! And on Friday we were, there’s just no doubt about it, whatever we did, the cars were basically top six the whole time.

“And yet, we went into Saturday, and it was trouble. Trouble from any perspective. Obviously, in the case of Carlos, his lap was hindered by the red flag that was caused by our own car, by Alex’s bodywork. His lap would have otherwise been okay. Second lap blocked by Hadjar, but his pace was there.

“In the case of Alex, well done to him. But as you can see, getting into Q3 was about where the car is, and we did have an Aston ahead of us, however we want to see it, and we had a number of individuals around us.”

Sunday in Montreal didn’t go to plan, with Albon going over the chicane on the first lap, and eventually retiring with PU overheating. Sainz meanwhile struggled with overheating brakes.

“Now, the start of the race was poor,” says Vowles. “We didn’t capitalise on that with Alex, and we fell backwards. But I think otherwise you would have seen us racing a little bit further up. We were really caught it in the melee, and dropped backwards as a result.

“In the case of Carlos, he was out of position in qualifying at a track where he was held up for a period of time, and finally got back to the point. And the reason why I bring that up is it’s not a slow car in Montreal, but there’s still a big question, why didn’t we get it all right in qualifying?

“So what changed was a little bit of wind, not a lot, but the direction changed of the wind and about seven degrees of track temperature. But what I really enjoyed is the last week where we’ve been digging into, why did we fall back exactly?

“And there’s some really good hints that have come out of it, in terms of, really, it sounds boring, but we didn’t get the tyres working in the right way, simple as that. And it really hurts us in that particular event, that C6 is delicate, and we were on the wrong side of it.”

Vowles insists that Williams isn’t losing out on overall form relative to its main rivals.

“If it was just simply development, on Friday and in some of the race pace that you saw, we would have also fallen back, and we didn’t. We still have a fast package. I think what you’re more seeing is that there are elements of our operation where we’re simply not at the level we need to be there.

“And that includes the reliability we had with Alex in the race. That includes the still not quite there in terms of operating the tyres in the right window in different conditions, because it didn’t change much, but it changed sufficiently in that regard. And even with the bodywork, that’s just simply elements that aren’t at the right level. It hindered both drivers across the weekend.

“Now, that’s one side of things, but the second side of things is has Aston added performance and Sauber added performance? Yes, definitely to that, and it’s made life trickier.

“Now, when we don’t get it right, you fall back into the clutches of being behind some of those cars that you wouldn’t have dreamt of being before.”

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June 6, 2025 · 10:26 am

Albon: How Barcelona exposed Williams flaws – and the need to “take the medicine”

Williams missed the points for the first time in five races – but Albon says lessons were learned

Williams enjoyed a remarkable run of four races from Jeddah to Monaco with both cars finishing in the points, helping to put the Grove team into a comfortable fifth place in the F1 World Championship.

That streak ended with a frustrating weekend in Spain, at a track that the team expected to be a little tricky.

Neither driver made Q3, with Alex Albon qualifying a still respectable 11th and Carlos Sainz a frustrated 18th at his home event.

Both men then suffered early front wing damage, necessitating a premature first stop for Albon that put him out of synch with rivals. Later he received more damage in further contact with Liam Lawson, and that led to his retirement. Sainz meanwhile could manage only 14th.

The positive was that all the woe occurred on a weekend when the car was not at its best, and points would have been a struggle.

“I don’t care, put it all be one race,” said Albon when I put that to him. “We’ll get it all done with, and then we’ll move on to Canada!

“In all seriousness, I think as bad as it looks today, there’s some learnings from this weekend. I think we’ve shown that our car is going in the right direction. Q2 and P11 proves that. It shows we still have work to do. We’re not this ultra-midfield car that that’s quick everywhere. We still have our flaws and our weaknesses.

“There’s a clear trend now that pretty much everyone around us is already upgraded, so we will inevitably fall down the pecking order eventually. We need to look at this track and understand why is it always this circuit that hurts us?

“We know it’s long corners, but we need to understand why the long corners. And in the race honestly, I think we could have been fighting for points. Could have, would have, should have.”

Albon insists that there’s always much to be learned from difficult weekends as Williams continues to make progress.

“It might sound weird, but I enjoy coming to these tracks, because I feel like I want us to be a top team,” he said. “And I know that these are the tracks where we need to be better at if we are going to be one.

“So it’s good to take our medicine and to understand it, and to really put the car to the test and understand and look at it, see it visually, quite a lot of work to do here. Let’s really get on top of it.

“We’ve improved the car everywhere, and we’ve definitely improved the car in long corners, but it’s still a step behind some of the others.”

Albon’s Sunday afternoon in Barcelona was made worse by a poor getaway that saw hm swallowed up by those behind, which contributed to the contact with Nico Hulkenberg.

“We had a clutch issue at the start,” he explained. “My clutch drop felt good, and I believe I was on target, but we just had an issue with the clutch. So we lost out quite heavily at the beginning, that cascaded, or put us back on the back foot into Turn 1.

“There was a concertina of cars avoiding each other, and I was the last one to get hit. So I lost my front wing. It forced us on a three-stop because of that, but an early three stop, and then when we had to a front wing change, you do the three-stop without an undercut. So it’s like the worst of everything, everyone’s coming out in front of you.”

Later in the race Albon had a couple of fraught moments with Liam Lawson, one of which earned him a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. He was at least able to take it before parking the car, so that it doesn’t carry over to the next event.

“The first penalty incident, I don’t know how I was ever going to make the corner,” he noted.

“For me, it was avoiding action because he was running me out. So I thought, well, he couldn’t complete the move cleanly without pushing me. So I’m entitled to the position. Maybe it might be I might be wrong in that, but that was my feeling towards it. So I thought.

“And anyway, I boxed the next lap, so I got out of his way. Maybe that wasn’t early enough for them. And then we came with Liam later in the race, a bit of a tricky one. I think I tried my best to stay out the way. I think by that point, my tyres were gone. And another front wing.

“A lot of the contacts I was getting were on the side, not just clipping the front, but clipping the end pieces of the floor. And so at that point, the car was pretty badly wounded, and we just decided to stop.”

Montreal is next, and it looks like the type of circuit that should suit the FW47.

“I agree. We’re good on ride, we’re good on a low downforce wing, so that bodes well for us, and we’re generally quite good in low-speed corners.

“Honestly, I think we’re in a good place. I feel like we’re generally understanding the setup of the car well. we’re in a good rhythm with the car. I feel like I’m driving well with the car. You just have to hope that Canada falls towards us as a track layout, and optimise it.

“I think this weekend, if we optimised everything perfectly, we would have maybe got P10. So it was a tricky one. I think in Canada I’m looking more towards Q3 and that kind of race.”

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May 25, 2025 · 8:26 am

Why Sainz and Williams needed some tyre “black magic” in Monaco

Sainz says he’s taken a step back after making good progress in recent races

Williams was expected to be a strong contender in Monaco, and practice suggested that might be the case with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz sixth and eighth respectively in the crucial FP3 session.

However come qualifying things fell apart a little, and after a spectacular P3 in Q2 Albon could manage only 10th when it mattered in Q3. Sainz was even worse off, failing to progress to the final session in 11th place.

Rivals Racing Bulls, Aston Martin and Haas all have at least one car ahead on the grid.

Williams perhaps made its life difficult by swapping to and from the medium C5 tyre in Q2, which meant the drivers had a car that behaved differently from run to run – with Sainz suggesting that there was “black magic” involved in getting it right with the tyres.

It was particularly hard for Sainz, who having made good progress in recent races didn’t feel confident from Friday onwards in Monaco.

“I think my weekend has just been, honestly, a bit off from the get-go,” said the Spaniard when I asked him about it.

“Never getting to feel well and confident with a car around the street track. A bit disappointed, because all the progress that I’ve done with setup and with my driving, I felt like the moment I went to a street track I went back seven races, and I was still learning too many new things about this car in a street track.

“And we had to play a lot with setup, which in Monaco is not ideal, because you feel a different car every time you go out. Never really got into a very good rhythm this weekend.”

Despite that he still believed that he would make it into the top 10.

“Even with all this lack of rhythm, lack of pace, lack of confidence with the car, I felt like I had plenty of pace to go into Q3 this weekend,” he said.

“Q1 we had a solid run. Q2, the moment we started playing with mediums and softs, that’s when your lack of experience, or lack of lack of feeling with the car, starts to show up.

“And I lost my rhythm, I lost my confidence, and I had a terrible last lap on soft I was, sliding all over the place. So definitely something to look into.

“Because also looking at Alex, just now in Q3 he managed to do a mega lap in Q2 but in Q3 he was again, nowhere. So there must be some black magic there that we haven’t maybe understood fully with the tyres.”

Switching to mediums worked well for Aston Martin in Imola and even in Q2 in Monaco (Alonso had none left so returned to C6 softs in Q3), but it clearly is not straightforward. So has Williams learned a lesson not to mix and match next time the C6 is in play?

“Yeah, maybe it’s a good point,” said Sainz. “That maybe Q2, given it’s our most important session, whatever the tyre is, you just keep it consistent to make sure you nail the lap.

“If there is something, it’s a tenth between the two compounds, and that last tenth, I feel like, in Williams this year, we have that tenth of margin to go to Q3, and today I didn’t never really put a lap, a good enough lap. But it’s a good point, a fair point.

“We’ll analyse that what I’m more concerned or what I’m more disappointed with this weekend, is with my understanding, confidence. Set up changes with the car have been way too much, and I’ve never really felt the car underneath me, which puts us some homework before the next street track, whenever that is.”

Sainz remains confident that he can have a strong race on Sunday.

“Honestly, I have the feeling in the race I’ll be quick, yesterday in the long run, I was quick. So I hope I’m putting pressure in everyone in front of me, and we can use this two-stop strategy.

“I feel like the car with higher fuel, bit less reactive, everything calms down, and I am more confident. And I’m pretty sure tomorrow I’ll be on the pace, and put the pressure on everyone around me.”

In the middle of the pack Williams also has to keep an eye on those behind who make early stops.

“Yeah, but tomorrow’s a day to look forward,” said Sainz. “I mean, obviously, keep an eye behind. But I think tomorrow the target needs to be getting the points and to be the ones on the attack, because I think I am a bit out of position from where I think I could be this weekend.”

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May 16, 2025 · 8:41 am

Why Sainz Jr believes his father is the right man for the FIA

Sainz Jr backs his father for the FIA job

The news that Carlos Sainz Sr is contemplating a run for the FIA presidency has created quite a stir, mainly because the 63-year-old is such an obvious potential candidate.

Universally respected, he brings with him the knowledge and experience gained not just during his own sporting career, but also from nurturing and guiding that of his son Carlos Jr.

At the moment it remains just an idea, and the former World Champion is clearly gauging the interest. However it would be naïve to think that he hasn’t already attracted useful support from around the world of motor sport, and potentially from senior FIA folk.

What matters of course is getting support from within the wider body of the FIA and the voting members, and it remains to be seen how that develops in the coming months, given that Mohammed Ben Sulayem scored such a convincing victory back in 2021.

Sainz will also have to come up with a full team, including deputy presidents for sport and mobility, and a head of senate.

The bottom line is that a challenge to the incumbent is a healthy thing and a good test of the democratic process in any field – may the best candidate win, and so on.

On Thursday in Imola Carlos Sainz Jr gave an intriguing insight into his father’s mindset, while stressing that the inspiration for him to stand came from elsewhere.

“Obviously we’ve been talking about it for a while now,” he said. “Interestingly enough, I think it’s something that didn’t actually come from him.

“A lot of people in the paddock were kind of putting it in his head, and little-by-little, he started considering it, and now he’s obviously thinking about it.

“I think the key is that he’s still hasn’t put together a team. But he’s considering it, and depending obviously how he sees it and sees his fit, he will go for it or not.”

So is he the right man for the job? Carlos Jr cites his dad’s vast experience of all forms motor sport.

“I’m his son, so I’m biased!,” he said. “But I just honestly speaking from the most objective position possible, it doesn’t come to my head anyone that has lived through all the karting days with his son, and knows the roots of motor sport in go-karting, as he did four or five years of go-karting with me.

“He did four or five years of single-seaters with me, knowing how tough, expensive, difficult is that ladder. He’s done 10 years in F1 with me. He’s done 40 years of rallying, raids. He does a lot of mobility work in Spain.

“So a guy that covers so many experiences in so many different areas of motor sport, coming to the end of his career, obviously, in racing, and trying to find a way to give back to motorsports what motorsports has given to him.

“From the most objective position that I can find, obviously being his son and obviously a very optimal candidate. Whether he will decide to do it or not is obviously completely up to him.

“But interestingly enough, as I said, it didn’t actually come from him, it came from a lot of people in the paddock putting it on his ear. And he started, maybe? It’s actually not so much from him, but people coming to him and suggesting it.”

So how likely is the bid to come to fruition?

“I can just tell you that he’s considering it seriously,” says Carlos. “Like he said, he’s evaluating all the options, obviously, now starting to think what team, what people, individuals, he would like to have in his team. He’s trying to understand how the elections work, how much convincing, how many people he needs to obviously go and talk to.

“But he’s evaluating the whole thing, and trying to understand how everything works. It’s his thing now. I’m obviously very busy here with Williams, doing my own thing, so I’m leaving it to him, in a way, and he gives me an update of the situation every one or two weeks, how much progress he’s doing, or what’s the situation. And he obviously wants my opinion, but not more than that.”

It’s not an easy job, and inevitably you can’t please everybody. Does Sr have a thick enough skin to cope with the challenges and criticism he’ll face?

“He seems more up for it in a way, where he has a thick enough skin to deal with it,” says Sainz Jr.

“My mum, maybe not so much! She’s like, come on, now that you are about to retire, give yourself a break, or do something not so demanding as this. But my dad is just non-stop.

“He loves motor sport, he loves racing, and he sees there an opportunity to put an end to his racing career, but still do something further, still actively, and find ways to give back to motorsport, and give back to the FIA, an entity that he has a lot of respect for, for all his years.

“And he knows what the FIA has done over the last 20-30 years, to improve safety in motorsport, to improve everyone’s life here in in motorsports. So he feels like he could give back, and that motivates him.”

Inevitably people will question how a serving FIA president could have a son racing in the organisation’s flagship championship.

However it’s inevitable that any credible candidate with relevant experience will have connections of some sort with teams, manufacturers and drivers.

When Jean Todt was president his son Nicolas was an active driver manager and team co-owner, and that wasn’t seen as a conflict. Carlos Jr is confident that it won’t be an issue.

“I’ve been trying to think scenarios where it could, but I actually don’t see any way how that could be seen,” he says. “If anything, obviously, he will be extremely careful. I will be extremely careful, because the last thing that I want is my or his image or career to be damaged by that situation.

“So if anything, we would do the opposite effect, and I don’t see any conflict of interest the moment you personally know my dad or you personally know me. We are honest people that would never, ever compromise that situation in motorsport.”

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April 20, 2025 · 10:01 am

Why Sainz will “pick better my fights” from P6 in Jeddah race

Sainz enjoyed his best qualifying session to date with Williams in Jeddah

Carlos Sainz continues to make progress as he finds his feet at the Williams Formula 1 team, and having qualified eighth in Bahrain he followed up with sixth place in Jeddah.

He was gifted a place by Lando Norris’s crash, but nevertheless on both occasions he has outpaced the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda.

Bahrain ended in frustration for the Spaniard with damage from a collision with Tsunoda, and he was also penalised for forcing Kimi Antonelli off the track.

With that very much on his mind he concedes that he’s looking at a more conservative approach on Sunday’s race, when big points could be up for grabs for anyone who sees the chequered flag in one piece.

“Honestly, after Friday, I saw a very big difference in race pace between the top cars and the midfield,” he said of his race prospects.

“It seems like the top cars managed to overheat the tyres a lot less than the midfield. So I expect a very difficult race tomorrow to keep the two or three cars that I have clearly quicker behind me.

“I need to think a bit about it, think a bit good tonight. Think about whether I put on a good fight like I did in Bahrain with them, and challenge them and make myself as wide as possible, or pick better my fights.

“In the heat of the battle it will be tough to stay disciplined, but my feeling tells me probably tomorrow is a better day to live to fight another day, and give myself a good chance of finishing in the points.”

Given that history suggests that Jeddah is a race of high attrition that rewards patience, staying clear of trouble would seem to be a good strategy.

“Yeah, I agree,” he said when I put that to him. “It’s a race that requires patience; it requires discipline on staying just one step away from the wall. Today, definitely, I enjoyed pushing the limits of the car in such a demanding track, getting myself comfortable around these walls at these speeds.

“We’re going with a car that still feels not very familiar to me, but I discovered lots of new things, and tomorrow I hope to do the same, put together a solid race, and bring home the first big haul of points for Williams from my side, which is the target.

“At the same time, we’re still only in race five, and we seem to be making good progress. So step-by-step.”

Beating a Red Bull and a Ferrari twice in two qualifying sessions is a sign of progress, even if both drivers – like Carlos himself – are still in the process of adjusting to an unfamiliar car.

“Definitely another good weekend so far, right from the start of FP1,” he said. “Feeling a step better and going in the right direction with setup and driving, still having to think a lot to pull some good lap together, but definitely feeling more at home and more comfortable with things.

“Happy and proud with the progress that we’re making, with the direction we’re following, as you said, second weekend in a row, that we must be quite close to the limit of the car, given that we managed to beat a Red Bull and a Ferrari, and obviously McLaren with a crash.

“So yeah, let’s keep going in that direction, keep following the same philosophy, one step at a time, and it will come as it’s coming little-by-little.”

The fact that between them Sainz and his team mate Alex Albon are regularly getting inside the top 10 at a variety of venues has to be a positive sign.

“This is a very confidence-driven circuit,” he said. “You need a lot of confidence to hustle the car around the walls at the speeds that we’re going, and you need to trust the car.

“And I feel like definitely, this weekend, I’m a step closer to being comfortable, given that it’s a very high confidence track, I’ve been competitive. So it shows the progress.

“And the direction we’re going is the positive one. At the same time, I’m sure there will be a lot more setbacks where I will need to learn from, try set-up directions or driving styles that I’ll get wrong.

“But trial and error will keep working and give me the awareness of what I need to do to be quick with this car. For now, it’s definitely paying.”

[If you’re an outlet that can use stories like this please get in touch as I am available for work!]

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January 31, 2015 · 6:40 pm

Carlos Sainz Jr: “I think it’s the moment to learn…”

Carlos Sainz Jr says he has not given himself any specific targets for his rookie season with Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Although he has more racing experience than his team mate Max Verstappen, he has less F1 mileage than the Dutchman. Both men drove the STR10 at a filming day in Misano this week.

“I think it’s not the moment to put any expectations or objectives,” he said in Jerez today. “I think it’s the moment to learn, to develop the car with Max and do a good job with the whole team. So far they have done the job because we have been the first team to put a car on track, and do those first 10-20 laps with the car.

“For sure we’ll be pushing each other, every F1 driver will be pushing the other team mate. Max and I will have to learn a lot this year, we’ll have to learn together also, especially 12 days of testing, six each – we’ll have to join our experience, let’s put it like that, to help the team as much as possible. Obviously our experience is not the same as the McLaren pair, or any other pair, but I think working together in the tests we can do a good job.”

Meanwhile while Verstappen’s age has ensured that he’s been in the global media spotlight, Sainz says he’s been busy at home:“In Spain I also had a bit of attention, everyone with ‘the new Fernando Alonso’ and all that. It’s things that must happen, and it’s normal. I don’t complain. I’m happy, it’s your dream come true, you cannot complain about your personal life.”

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November 28, 2014 · 5:08 pm

Toro Rosso confirms Carlos Sainz Jr for 2015 race seat

Red Bull has confirmed that Carlos Sainz Jr will race for Toro Rosso in 2015, alongside Max Verstappen.

The team has been expecting to announce its line-up next Monday, but main rival for the job Jean-Eric Vergne pre-empted any announcement by using Twitter to say that he had been dropped.

Any last question marks over Sainz were addressed after a strong performance while testing the Red Bull RB10 in Abu Dhabi earlier this week.

“Ever since I have been part of Red Bull’s Young Driver Programme, this has been my aim,” said Sainz. “And I want to thank Red Bull for putting their faith in me. I have had a very successful season in World Series by Renault this year and now I am looking forward to taking the step up to Formula 1. I tested for a day with Toro Rosso last year and I liked the atmosphere in the team. In the next few months I will be working hard on my preparation, ready to get in the cockpit in Jerez for the first test of next year. It will be nice to make my “official” debut as a Formula 1 driver in my home country!”

Team boss Franz Tost added: “With Carlos Sainz joining Max Verstappen in our driver line-up next year, we continue the Toro Rosso tradition of providing youngsters from the Red Bull Junior Driver Programme with their first steps in Formula 1. I have watched Carlos progress through the junior categories, always improving as he moved higher up the ladder, culminating in a well-deserved win in this year’s World Series. However, I also remember the day’s testing he did with us at Silverstone in 2013 in the STR8. He really surprised me and his engineers that day, with his mature approach and his speed.”

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November 26, 2014 · 2:28 pm

Vergne reveals that he’s been dropped by Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne has used Twitter to reveal that he won’t be driving for Toro Rosso next year.

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko told this writer in Abu Dhabi that an announcement would come next week, so clearly Vergne has decided to or been allowed to pre-empt that.

Once source told this writer than Vergne has known since August – in effect when Max Verstappen entered the picture – that he would be out. It’s understood that team principal Franz Tost was keen to retain him in order to have one experienced driver in the line-up, but the decision was made by Red Bull.

The Frenchman said: “Despite a good season & 22 pts, I’ll not drive anymore for Toro Rosso in 2015. Thanks for those years. Let’s go for another big challenge.”

Confirmation of his departure obviously leaves the door open for Carlos Sainz Jr, who drove for Red Bull in Abu Dhabi yesterday. GP3 champion Alex Lynn, who tested for Lotus today, could be the logical choice as third driver for STR/RBR.

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