A wall, a wing, and no penalty: Sainz's Austin race undone on lap one
Carlos Sainz's United States Grand Prix lasted barely a corner before it was effectively over — and he's still waiting for an explanation as to why no penalty followed.
Sainz was pinched against the pit wall by Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad on the opening lap at Circuit of the Americas, the contact destroying his front wing and leaving Williams to nurse a wounded car for the first stint. He finished 18th, with the damage costing significant downforce before an elongated pit stop to change the wing.
"I picked up, well, surprised with a bit at the start and the lack of penalties there, to be honest," Sainz said. "It was quite sketchy and yeah, had a pretty big hit with the wall, damaged the front wing."
The consequences were immediate and brutal. Sainz spent the opening phase wrestling a car that had lost aerodynamic load, and his stop to replace the wing cost him additional time, dropping him down the order before he could finally show the pace the FW48 had carried all weekend.
"After that, to be honest, was a 15-20 laps stint with a lot of damage in the car and a very long pit stop changing the front wing," he said. "But from then on, once we got the front wing back in the car, that was good. I was pretty competitive, quite quick, recovered well from that and yeah, good pace, but obviously still within our limits."
Those limits, Sainz was candid, are nowhere near where Williams needs them to be. Asked whether the team is currently fighting around ninth or tenth, his answer was a sobering assessment of a season that has unravelled on the aerodynamic side.
"Yeah, no, I'm waiting maybe for better tracks like Vegas or potentially even Mexico to be a bit better for us," he said. "Because yeah, we've been definitely struggling a lot this year, especially this back end of the season with a lack of downforce and the lack of upgrades on the aerodynamic side, so difficult, but we're just waiting for next year at this point."
The admission is a stark one from a driver who joined Williams believing the project was on an upward trajectory. With the FW48 lacking downforce and development having stalled, Austin offered only confirmation of what Sainz has suspected for months: this season is a write-off, and every remaining race is about surviving rather than competing.
Mexico and Las Vegas, he hopes, might suit the car's weaknesses better. But the bar is low.
For now, the focus shifts to next year — and to ensuring the mistakes that produced this car are not repeated.
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