Carlos Sign insists that there is no frustration from his side after Alex Albon overtakes him at the Miami Grand Prix.
Albon started before Sainz but stopped in behind his teammates early in the race, re-slamming the Spaniard on turn 11, finishing an impressive fifth place. Williams was quick throughout the race, but Sainz came in ninth place after suffering floor damage, but I don’t think his moment with Albon is particularly important.
First of all, because of operational mistakes over the weekend, we were forced to start used tires from qualifying while everyone around me was new, so we already knew we would put it on our hind legs and lose a tenth of the first lap in new pairs of use,” Sainz said. “And from there, obviously, I tried everything to keep it all in the first stint.
“I was first damaged with Alex, and then he made a mistake. I could overtake him and they said we were frozen. I don’t know if he got the message, but basically he drove me back.
“From there, in that first stint, I tried to do everything to stay in touch with the group.
“I think I was the first person in that pit, so VSC came out, so it was a free stop for all of them, or a short stop for all of them, compared to me.
“We had some nice fights with Ferrari, but damaging the car made me unable to stay close to sector 1 with all the downforce and make them better in the fight.
Albon said he was given a message related to the engine’s temperature – which may mean he needs to hold position – the former Ferrari driver was calm about discussing the post-race incident, as he lined up Sainz’s passes.
“No, for me, it only becomes clear if they are told not to attack on the radio and they’re going to push together.
“I play a good guy in Jeddah and you’re overtaken, you look totally stupid, but that’s about it. We’ll talk about it. We’ll come out better as a team and move on.”
There was also contact with Lewis Hamilton as Sainz tried to overtake Ferrari on the final lap of the race, but no further action was taken after the steward pointed out the move, and Sainz was once again philosophical about the decision.
“The last lap, I obviously saw the gap and did it, so I obviously went for it. I think he responded a bit to my movement, which surprised him a bit and he started moving left while braking.