‘I don’t know why this happens to me as a driver so often’ – Sainz bemoans latest career DNS

Carlos Sainz’s Austrian Grand Prix was over even before it began, the Williams driver lamenting the third DNS of his F1 career.

Sainz had a troubled weekend at the Red Bull Racing where a brake issue and floor damage left him down in 19th place in Saturday’s qualifying.

Carlos Sainz: Clearly, too many issues

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

His weekend went from bad to worse on Sunday.

Lining up on the grid for the formation lap, Sainz wasn’t able to get going until the very last second as pole-sitter Lando Norris closed in on the back of the grid.

“Something is stopping the car from moving forward,” he reported on team radio before he got going.

That necessitated a second restart with Sainz hoping to start from the pit lane. Making his way around the circuit, he pulled into the pits where he reported that it felt like his brakes were engaged throughout the lapping.

Stopping at the end of the pit lane, he was told his brakes are “on fire” as smoke poured from the rears with flames noticeable.

More on the Austrian Grand Prix

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The Williams mechanics and fire marshals used extinguishers on the car as it was pushed back to the team’s garage where Sainz was informed that it was “game over”.

“I don’t know why this happens to me as a driver so often,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “It happened a few times that I don’t even get to start the race, and today just a different issue.

“Clearly, too many issues yesterday, too many issues.

“We’re having a tough, tough run as a team. Very scrappy first half of the season. I think today marks the midway point.

“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 before Silverstone, but it’s our home Grand Prix so we need to regroup to see what we can do better.”

The Spaniard revealed that his FW47 initially would not engage first gear as the brakes were stuck, but after a reset, he was able to get going only to notice that there was still a problem with the car.

“Th first gear didn’t go in because the rear brakes were stuck,” he explained. “And when I understood that, I power cycled the car and tried to get going, but immediately the issue came back. I caught fire, and that was it.

“There were 10 minutes to go [for the second restart], so they were trying to cease the fire, obviously, and then see if we could solve the issue.”

He, however, doesn’t believe it was the same brake issue that blighted his qualifying as Williams fixed only for something else to go wrong on his way to the grid on Sunday.

“We don’t know yet, my feeling is yes it’s unrelated, but I don’t know,” he said.

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

Williams recorded a non-score in Austria with Alex Albon retiring from the race. The team remains P5 in the Constructors’ Championship on 55 points, 19 ahead of Racing Bulls.