The 2026 F1 United States GP was a weekend to forget for Williams’ Carlos Sainz, who concluded Sunday in a frustrating P18, a lap behind race winner Kimi Antonelli. It had been a challenging weekend for both Sainz and teammate Alex Albon from the start at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
The FW48 struggled with a lack of downforce since FP1, where the Spaniard finished towards the back of the grid in P19. Williams then continued to struggle going into Qualifying as Sainz was only able to qualify P19 for the 2026 F1 United States GP. This also marked his sixth Q1 exit of the season.
Sainz reflects on Lap 1 incident with Lindblad at 2026 F1 United States GP
Despite a decent start upon lights out at the 2026 F1 United States GP, Sainz was not able to reap the full benefits of it. After the start, the Spaniard attempted an overtake on Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad. The Briton aggressively defended his position, squeezing Sainz’ Williams toward the pit wall.
The 32-year-old was forced to back out to avoid a collision. However, he still sustained damage to his front wing, which had a significant impact on his first stint and resulted in an 8-second pit stop.
Reflecting on the incident, Sainz shared that he was surprised the stewards did not even investigate Lindblad for the incident. According to the Spaniard, he believes that the incident could “potentially been a very big accident”.
“Yeah, a good start but we’ve picked up a trend now where I think everyone knows we’re getting very good starts and they kind of put us off a bit at the start. And I’m surprised he got away with that because obviously he’s putting someone in the wall and creating what could have potentially been a very big accident. But backed out in time for me and picked up a lot of front wing damage, which compromised my first stint. On top of that, obviously, a slow pit stop to change the front wing, 7-8 seconds extra.”
Finding a silver lining at the 2026 F1 United States GP
One positive Sainz was able to take away from the very frustrating 2026 F1 United States GP came after his lengthy first pit stop of the race. The 32-year-old noted an improvement in pace after Williams had fitted a new front wing.
Nonetheless, he also reflected that it was “a bit of a shame” he was unable to fully extract it, as the massive time deficit from his Lap 1 incident made it impossible to finish within the points.
“But then I managed to recover from there and settle down into a decent pace towards the rest of the race. So yeah, a bit of a shame that the start and lap one was compromised and the stint one was compromised. But it is what it is.”
Response to Alonso’s comment
Following the end of the 2026 F1 United States GP, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had criticised the standards of the drivers who fell in the lower third of the 2026 F1 Constructors’ Championship. His comment came after his collision with Williams’ Alex Albon.
In response to the two-time world champion’s comment, Sainz reflected: “I think we are all at very high standards.”
The Spaniard continued as he rejected Alonso’s opinion, explaining that drivers had their moments on track. The four-time race winner pointed towards his incident with Lindblad in the opening laps of the 2026 F1 United States GP as an example. He also reiterated his shock at the stewards’ ruling on the incident.
“It’s just that sometimes someone has a bit of an off moment which always happens in F1. Today, my opinion was Arvid [Lindblad] that was maybe too much on me. But we’ve all been too much one or two days and what I’m surprised is that when you’re too much you get away with it and whenever I’ve been too much I never get away with it. But yeah, I’m surprised that today someone got away with it because it was a pretty nasty moment there on the wall.”
On blue flags
Sainz also discussed his perspective on lapped cars after race winner Kimi Antonelli had expressed his frustrations with blue flags at the 2026 F1 United States GP. The Italian went wide at Turn 12 when he was behind car #55.
As explained by the Spaniard, he had “been in both positions”. Hence, while he understood the frustration of being lapped, he also called for the faster drivers on track to be more understanding of the lapped cars as “it’s not as straightforward”.
“We’re doing the best we can. 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 as straightforward as it looks when you’re leading.”
