Carlos Sainz has asked Formula 1’s frontrunners to be patient with lapped cars, saying getting out of the way under blue flags is harder than it looks, after he again frustrated the race leader at the United States Grand Prix.
Kimi Antonelli, chasing his ninth win of the season and his first chance to wrap up the title, caught Sainz’s Williams on lap 36 of 56. In the dirty air behind the Spaniard, the Mercedes driver locked up and ran off the track.
“Ah this guy!” Antonelli said on team radio. “My god!”
Sainz, meanwhile, told Williams: “I was gonna let Antonelli by, but he locked up.”
Antonelli recovered to win by 13 seconds from Charles Leclerc. Sainz, who broke his front wing in a first-lap incident with Arvid Lindblad, finished 18th.
“We’re doing the best we can” – Carlos Sainz
It is not the first time this season Sainz has found himself in a leader’s way. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, he stayed on the racing line as Oscar Piastri, fighting for victory, came up to lap him, and the pair collided at Turn 2. Sainz was handed a five-second penalty for causing a collision.
Piastri called it the “dumbest things” he had ever seen, while Sainz claimed Piastri should’ve “been a bit more careful” given he was the one fighting for the victory.
After Austin, the 32-year-old said the speed gap between the front and back of the grid makes judging when to move over difficult.
“We’re doing the best we can,” Sainz said. “The problem is there’s such a big speed difference from the top cars to us. It’s up to three or four seconds.
“So the moment you calculate to let them by, maybe they’ve caught you up quicker than you expected, or vice versa.
“To the top guys, I’ve been in both positions, lapping a lot of people in my Ferrari days. I’m being lapped now, and I can tell you, it’s not easy for the ones having to let people by.
“So bear with us because it’s not like it’s as straightforward as it looks when you’re leading.”
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