It was a disappointing qualifying for Williams driver Carlos Sainz at the F1 Monaco GP.
Williams tried an alternate strategy, opting to use the medium tyres instead of softs on run one in Q2. Both drivers sat on the brink of elimination near the end of Q2, so the team switched to soft tyres for a final flying lap. Albon set the third-fastest lap of the session on softs. Unfortunately for Sainz, he was unable to improve his qualifying time and got eliminated in Q2, ending up 0.6s slower.
Sainz “lacking confidence” with car on street circuits
This is Sainz’s first time qualifying outside the top ten at the F1 Monaco GP. The four-time race winner claimed he is still lacking confidence with the car on street tracks, putting him behind his competitors.
The 30-year-old had struggled early on in the season to adapt to the FW47, but he had turned a corner by outqualifying Albon in Jeddah, Miami and Imola.
However, his lack of feeling like he had in Melbourne and Shanghai returned.
“I think my weekend has just been, honestly, a bit off from the get-go. Never getting to feel well and confident with the car around the street track.
“A bit disappointed because the progress that I’ve done with set-up and with my driving, I felt like, the moment I went to the street track, I felt like I went back seven races. I was still learning too many new things about this car in the street track.
“We had to play a lot with set-up. It’s not ideal because you feel a different car every time you go out. Yeah, I never really get into a very good rhythm this weekend.
Despite his struggles with the car’s set-up Sainz still believes he had the qualifying pace to make Q3 at the F1 Monaco GP. Teammate Albon is starting the race from P10 after making it to Q3 in qualifying, although he made a mistake on his last lap.
“Anyway, even with all this lack of rhythm, lack of pace, lack of confidence with the car, I felt like I had plenty of pace to go into Q3 this weekend. Q1, we had a solid run. Q2, the moment we started playing with mediums and softs, that’s when your lack of experience or lack of feeling with the car starts to show up.
“I lost my rhythm, I lost my confidence. I had a terrible last lap on softs. I was sliding all over the place.”
Sainz looks ahead to tomorrow’s race
Despite his poor qualifying performance, Sainz feels optimistic about the Williams’ race pace for the F1 Monaco GP. With the introduction of the mandatory two pitstops, strategy calls will play an important role in moving through the field. Sainz believes points are on the table for Williams tomorrow.
“I honestly have a feeling in the race I’ll be quick. Yesterday in the long run I was quick. So, I hope I’m putting pressure on everyone in front of me and we can use this two-stop strategy.
“I’m pretty sure tomorrow I’ll be on the pace and putting pressure on everyone around me, but I haven’t had a look at strategy yet because I’ve been too busy changing set-ups and putting my head around the car.
“I think tomorrow the target needs to be getting the points and be the ones on the attack because I think I’m a bit out of position from where I think I could be this weekend.”
Sainz will start the F1 Monaco GP from P11.
