Carlos Sainz details Williams mechanical issues that derailed his Mexico GP

Carlos Sainz’s Mexico campaign unravelled from the beginning of his race after contact with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson. The damage he picked up triggered a cascade of issues on his Williams, with his race eventually ending in retirement.

“A race full of issues, compromised probably by the contact at the start. I think we were three or four into [Turn] 1 and there was a big melee,” Sainz explained.

“We were three or four cars side by side, like always in Mexico, a tricky one.”

The squeeze at Turn 1, as the pack concertinaed into the corner, left him nursing damage to sensors on his wheel that snowballed through his race.

“I think I damaged my rim, which damaged my first set of tyres, my rim sensor, my speed sensors of the tyre and my pit limiter wasn’t working and from there on even if we got a five-second penalty at the first pitstop we were still in the hunt for points but then we had to do a second pitstop.”

He received 10 seconds of penalties throughout the race due to speeding in the pitlane, something that was caused by the damaged sensor.

“We had the issue again of the pit limiter and we basically had a very difficult day, a shame because I was really quick and even if I had a compromised strategy, compromised tyres, compromised car, we were quick but too many issues.”

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

The Spaniard’s race ended in the stadium section of the track towards the end of the race, with him retiring his car. While he believes his car was placed in a safe part of the track, the race was placed under virtual safety car conditions.

“I went into the inside of the barrier with the car, trying to avoid any safety car or VSC. I think I did the safest thing I could do.” Pressed again on what actually happened, Sainz added: “No, I was just pushing, I had behind Lance [Stroll] pushing flat out to see if I could get P14. I had overheating on the tyre and I had a half-spin but anyway we were going to retire the car.”

He was further asked if he believed the VSC was necessary.

“I felt I put the car safe enough, I don’t know if it was VSC, double yellow or what, but I definitely tried to avoid any of that.”

Photos from Mexican GP – Race