Carlos Sainz reveals reason for Qualifying no-show amid ‘disappointing’ weekend

Carlos Sainz was annoyed after he endured extra disrupted operating on Saturday, lacking out on Qualifying completely to depart him to begin the Australian Grand Prix with considerably much less operating than his rivals.

The Spaniard has solely managed to finish one full session over the weekend up to now, ending FP1 in P12 earlier than he needed to return to the pits whereas Williams investigated a problem on the halfway level of FP2.

While he was capable of begin remaining apply, he was shortly sidelined as he suffered a lack of energy on the opening lap and got here to a halt on the pit entry, prompting a Virtual Safety Car whereas his FW48 was recovered.

To add to his frustrations, the identical subject meant that Sainz was resigned to the storage as Qualifying acquired underway, with the crew unable to discover a repair earlier than Q1 got here to an finish. He was joined by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in being dominated out of the session and can begin from P21 on the grid.

“We had an ERS [Energy Recovery System] package issue and we didn’t manage to solve it in time for Qualifying,” Sainz mentioned. “No laps in FP2, no laps in FP3, no laps in Q1 so a really disappointing first weekend with this set of rules.

“No FP2 future, no FP2 run on softs, no FP3 laps, no Q1. Even going into China subsequent weekend, not with the ability to do mileage this weekend and never with the ability to do a Qualifying session for the primary time will not be supreme to begin the 12 months. “It looks like a long year ahead of us so hopefully we can start sorting our issues.”

His crew mate Alex Albon was capable of collect much more learnings throughout the classes, together with driving some race simulation laps in FP2, however his weekend has been removed from faultless.

Placing a excessive of P13 in Q1, Albon went into his remaining run in Q2 in fifteenth place. A spot within the top-10 had eluded him to that time, and any probability of progressing to Q3 was hindered by an tour over the grass that discounted his lap.

Asked whether or not the error price him, he mentioned: “No. We’ve acquired half a second to the automotive in entrance so what can we do to get that lap time? It was okay given all the things. I believe it was a greater outcome than we anticipated going into the weekend.

“It was capable of beat one of many different midfield automobiles so let’s examine the way it goes. It’s been a troublesome, troublesome weekend – we have been on the again foot with Carlos clearly lacking out on loads of operating. On our aspect, we have had loads of technical points as properly. We’ve been combating fires a bit of bit. We know the place there’s lap time, it is a bit apparent to us.

“I’ve done two practice starts in my 2026 career so far. Tire deg, graining seems bad for us. We made some set-up changes to fix that hopefully. I want rain, but that’s not going to happen!”