As Formula One enters its summer break, the F1 Hungarian GP remains at the centre of attention. For Carlos Sainz, it was far from a straightforward weekend. The Williams Racing driver faced a series of challenges as they lacked pace around the Hungaroring.
Unclear incident involving Gasly
Late in the Grand Prix, the 30-year-old was looking to pass Gasly around the outside into turn 2. However, wheel-to-wheel contact was made as the Frenchman shoved the Williams driver off the track. Sainz lost out to Hülkenberg because of it.
As a result, Gasly received a 10-second time penalty, a moment that may have gone unseen on the world feed but certainly not unfelt by the Spaniard.
“Yes, we were fighting for position and he missed the braking in Turn 2 and took me out quite badly. I think he got a 10-second penalty, but we were fighting for 13th-14th. It cost me probably P13 in the race, but it’s where we would have deserved to finish.”
One or two stops would have made almost no difference to F1 Hungarian GP result for Carlos Sainz
Talking about the strategy of the race, the difference between a one and two-stop was not anything big, hence the one working for many.
With Williams struggling for pace in Hungary, however, going for the two made no real difference to the result.
“Today if we were on a one-stop, we would have not finished higher than P12. It’s not like one or two stops would have changed our lives today. Ultimately, it’s a difficult track to pass and if the race is a one-stop, it’s not like you’re going to overtake without a tyre delta.”
Qualifying position set for the race
Williams opted for a different approach in Hungary, starting on the soft compound in a strategic gamble that, in hindsight, may have been overly optimistic.
Carlos Sainz stated that they abandoned the initial plan to one-stop from soft to hard and chose a more conventional two-stop strategy instead, which eventually saw him finish in P14.
“We were always destined to finish more or less where we started. We tried something different starting on soft. Probably, we were a bit optimistic thinking we could at one point one-stop from soft to hard, but in the end, we decided to bail and do our two-stops, which brought us back to P13 until Gasly took us out.
Changes for the summer break
Reflecting on the weekend, Carlos Sainz didn’t shy away from acknowledging the challenges. The contrast was especially stark coming off a stint with a team that secured pole position the day before, only to head to one that qualified P13 with him behind the wheel. The shift highlighted just how steep the uphill battle remains for Williams at a circuit that continues to expose their limitations.
“It’s always been a difficult track for the team. Yesterday, we had quite a long debrief after qualifying because obviously, I’m coming from the team that was on pole yesterday, going back to a team that was P13 yesterday with me.”
Sainz admitted he was able to give the team clear feedback on why the car struggles at circuits like Budapest. While there’s little that can be done for this season, he hopes it serves as a valuable lesson for future development at certain venues with the same type of corners.
“I could give them very strong feedback on why this car is lagging around a track like this. Obviously, for this year, we cannot do anything, but for the future, hopefully, it’s a very big learning curve for the team to know how we need to develop the Formula 1 car to be successful and competitive also in tracks like Budapest or Barcelona.”
