Carlos Sainz believes Aston Martin have taken a significant step forward over the Dutch Grand Prix weekend after he suffered a disastrous collision with Alex Albon.
Coming into the Dutch GP weekend, Williams’ hopes were realistic but high. With both drivers re-signing their contracts, morale was good within the Grove-based team.
However, the summer break has not addressed the car’s fundamental issues, even though Vowles and both drivers seemed positive about the future.
The weekend at the Dutch GP continued to show that, as the Williams duo qualified 16th and 17th. The race further solidified their place as they were running at the back of the field when Sainz locked up and ran Albon off the road.
Albon limped back to the pits and retired the car, while Sainz completed the race but was two laps behind the leader and picked up a ten-second penalty for the incident.
A fair penalty at the Dutch GP
Sainz told media, including Motorsport Week, that he believed the penalty was fair, and explained that the lock-up was a surprise and he tried to avoid Albon as best he could.
“Yeah, no – [a] fair penalty. I had a bit of a surprise when I went to defend. So, I had really worn-out tyres, struggling a lot with the car and the pace of the race.
When I went to brake on the inside, there was a massive bump on the inside of Turn 1 that, the further in you are, the bigger it gets.
“I just hit with the plank, I had the front tyres in the air, and as soon as I touched the brake I locked up, and I took Alex with me, which is the worst possible outcome for that race.”
He reminded the media that it was for the final positions in the field, but it still wasn’t intentional, and he apologised immediately after the incident.
“It’s not like we were fighting for anything big, but honestly it caught me so much by surprise that it’s apologies to him because it’s the last thing I wanted.
Despite the break being a chance to reset and hopefully refocus the team on the future, the Dutch Grand Prix was a stark reminder of the situation for the Grove outfit.
While they’ve struggled to make any significant gains, Aston Martin brought a package which enabled Fernando Alonso to pick up his second points of the season. Climbing from 18th to 9th on the grid.
Sainz believes that Aston’s race pace puts them in a ‘different league’.
“Yeah, we are pretty much where we expected, which is towards the back; we are only quicker than Cadillac at the moment.” He said. “You saw the Astons in race pace; they are a different league right now, so we couldn’t fight them. We couldn’t fight anyone really.
“It was at the end of the race, Alex and I were just having fun, and unfortunately I made this mistake where I was caught off guard with the front locking to Turn 1 in the bump, but honestly it’s not like we were fighting for much.”
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