Sainz: We are three steps behind where we should be

Carlos Sainz did not hide his frustration with Williams’ pace in Miami Sprint qualifying, despite scraping into SQ2.

Sainz qualified 15th for Saturday’s Sprint at the Miami Autodrome, but will line up 14th after his team-mate Alex Albon was stripped of his lap times for a track limit violation.

Carlos Sainz fumes at Williams pace despite scraping into Miami SQ2

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The Williams team-mates snuck through in 15th and 16th places, taking the final two positions in SQ2. It was the second Q2 appearance of the season for both drivers.

Sainz went on to set the 15th fastest time, but he was almost two seconds down on the pace-setting Charles Leclerc.

He let Williams know his feelings.

“We are three steps behind where we should be, every lap,” he told the team over the radio. “And I’m not happy with this.

“It cannot be that, after one hour-and-a-half of practice, and we are still in this state.”

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But despite his criticism in the moment, Sainz was a lot more positive when he spoke with the media after Sprint qualifying.

Although he revealed he was struggling with energy management on his flying laps, he believes Williams has taken a step forward.

“Just the step we expected,” he said. “So, a bit of a step in a good direction.

“A bit more performance, fighting to get into SQ2, especially given the fact that on my side of the garage, we’ve been having a lot of issues with energy management on the out-lap and the push lap, and probably we didn’t optimise the day.

“And we were still in SQ2, which in Suzuka and China, with perfect laps, perfect energy, we were still in SQ1, so I’ll take that as a positive.”

Sainz did make it through to Q2 in Japan, where he qualified P16.

The Spaniard was also quizzed on Formula 1’s energy management tweaks, which were aimed at reducing the need for battery harvesting and super clipping.

He explained that it should have more of an effect at other circuits, with Miami a high-energy circuit. That prompted the FIA to leave the maximum recharge unchanged at 8 MJ.

“Hopefully better at other tracks,” he said. “Here it’s an okay circuit for energy, so it was never going to be a huge change. So yeah, I think the changes are very small. Honestly, we will not see a big difference until they change properly.

“The regulations for ’27 which hopefully will give another step.”

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