Carlos Sainz said he was close to “disobeying” Williams at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after they told him to box early which was “never in the plan.”

The Spaniard was called in on lap 11 in a move that destroyed his chance of finishing high up in the points.

Carlos Sainz bemoans Williams Imola strategy calls

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Sainz was already at odds with Williams’ strategy decisions following the Miami Grand Prix but his patience was tested further in Imola as he went from starting P6 to crossing the line in eighth.

Even during the race, Sainz let his feelings be known by saying over the team radio that the strategy his team-mate Alex Albon was on was clearly the right call and afterwards, the former Ferrari driver revealed pitting that early was never part of the plan.

“If I’m very honest with you, pitting so early was never in the plan,” he told media including PlanetF1.com. “There was no warning from no one to say we were going to box.

“So when the box call came, I was very close to not boxing and disobeying.

“At the same time, I’m a team player and obviously the team has more info than what I have, so I followed the order just in case there was something happening that I couldn’t see.

“It is true everyone was degging at that time, but normally, the tyres always go through a phase of where they feel really poor, and then they recover and we know how penalising track position is around here. Which is what we gave up at that stage with [Charles] Leclerc and all the one-stoppers with basically the rest of the field.

“So it came by surprise, definitely.

“I think we cannot be happy with P8, even though, at one stage of my race I was P15 and I didn’t even think we were going to get points, but I did a good comeback from there.

“We just didn’t execute that a good Sunday. Yet again, second time in a row.

“I think that we let go away a lot of points on Sunday after being in a very strong position after the first few laps, attacking and being quicker than the Aston and the Mercedes in front.

“I don’t know if we overreacted to Leclerc pitting or something, but we clearly boxed really really early on my side of the garage. And from then on, we were on an offset strategy that really wasn’t working and wasn’t going in our way.”

Sainz elaborated on that issue with the team, saying he had yet to build the kind of report he had with his previous employers and that Williams need to take a step this year.

“Frustrated because it’s not the first time and it’s costing us a lot of points on Sundays, but at the same time, I’ve always told the team, this is a year to make these mistakes, to try and learn from them. At the same time, we need to make a step, because we’re starting to give away too many points for my liking.

“Clearly, we need to improve the way we communicate, the way we understand each other on Sundays, because it’s always been a strength of mine that I need to build with the team.”

“Clearly with this team, it is yet to be built and ingrained. To make sure we execute Sundays a bit better, because with the speed that I had this weekend, on Saturday, the speed that I had today in the race, and came out of the weekend with only at P8, when you see Alex again in the top five with a normal plan, is very frustrating.

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“And also because it comes after another [poor race] in a consecutive manner. So when it comes in a consecutive manner it’s very frustrating, but we’ll learn from it.

“Williams is not fighting for any World Dhampionships, but I do believe Williams has the potential to fight for race wins and championships in the future.

“It’s a very young team, a very young project, and we found Sunday in a very good position this year to be fighting world championship teams, which is Mercedes and Ferrari.

“We were quicker than them in Miami. We were quicker than them today. We didn’t beat them in Miami. On my side, we didn’t beat them today. So we need to learn how to beat them.”

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