“The team said to keep positions … but Albon should not receive the message”

Carlos Sainz ended ninth in the Miami F1 2025 GP, But if something made clear after getting out of the car is that the final result does not reflect its true rhythm. “Today we were in the fight with Mercedes and Ferrari, which is very encouraging,” he said. “With a new tire and no damage to the car, I sincerely believe that I would have been in the fight for the fifth place.”

The Williams pilot had a complicated race from the beginning. Not only did it start with a medium used tire – “a decision forced by operational errors during the weekend” – but also suffered damage to the first lance with Alex Albon. “That already put us defensive, because the others wore new rubber and there were a couple of tenths for a return of difference,” he explained.

The own Sainz He reported a first career phase full of setbacks: “I had to do everything possible to stay in the group, with a damaged and pneumatic car used. Alex made a mistake and passed him, then the team told us to keep positions … but I don’t know if he received the message, because he advanced me again.”

The early stop of the Madrid was another key point. Williams decided to cover with hard tires on return 25, just before a Virtual Safety Car favored his direct rivals. “I was the first of that group to stop, and with the VSC everyone else made a free or much shorter stop. That left us sold,” he lamented.

“A bittersweet taste, despite the rhythm”

Even so, Sainz starred several melee struggles with the Ferrari in the last third of race. “The rhythm was decent, taking into account the damage and how early we stopped. But in the battles I missed grip in the first sector, where I could not stay close due to the lack of aerodynamic load,” he explained. In the end, he ended up less than half a second from a Lewis Hamilton who was about to advance in the last round.

That action, in fact, left him a bittersweet taste. “I went for him in the last curve and moved just when I launched. There was contact,” he said. “If we follow the regulation to the letter, you can’t move so much, but well … it’s the last round and we already know how these things are going.”

Beyond the result, Sainz See very positive signals in the performance of the FW47. “This weekend the car was at the optimal point. I did not feel that way from the Bahrain tests, when we saw that we were closer to the greats,” he said. “That’s why I’m going angry. Because we had a competitive car and, between operational errors and bad luck, we do not take advantage of it. The next time I have this opportunity, I want to be I who maximizes it.”