Carlos Sainz credited his sixth place grid spot for Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix on a “20-minute nap” – explaining that Williams had to reset following a series of “scrappy” mistakes throughout the weekend.
The Spaniard was eliminated in the second part of sprint qualifying, and then knocked himself out of the Saturday race after clipping the wall at Turn 13, causing damage to both left-hand wheels on his car.
He put those issues down to both his own driving mistakes and operational errors from the team, prompting Sainz to call for Williams to renew its focus for the grand prix sessions.
Following qualifying, Sainz explained he took a nap after the sprint to stop himself from “spiralling” over the mistakes, which he says gave him and the team energy to chase a top six grid position.
“I kept spiralling thinking about all the things that we’ve been doing wrong, but then I went with my engineers and said, “look, let’s just reset, we have the potential,” Sainz told Sky F1.
“[I said]’I’m going to take a 20 minute nap and come back with a different mentality because clearly this weekend is not being good, and let’s give it a go in qualifying’.”
Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
He later told media: “I’m very happy after a very scrappy weekend, both on the operational side and the driving side, where a lot of mistakes happening from both the team and my side.
“We were scratching our heads like: ‘how can we be so fast but, at the same time, make so many mistakes in two or three sessions?’
“We managed to press the reset button and managed to show the potential that we’ve had in the previous two or three sessions.
“I’m very happy with that, very happy with that capacity to press the reset and go again. I’m happy to finally unleash the potential that I saw in FP1 and quali yesterday to put the car in P6, only three tenths away from pole.”
The four-time grand prix winner was a tenth ahead of team-mate Alex Albon, who escaped sanctions beyond a reprimand for a Q1 pitlane incident, where he pulled out in front of Isack Hadjar. Albon had earlier lost points in the sprint race, he initially finished fourth, for going marginally too slow on his safety car delta time.
Regardless, Sainz felt that Williams appeared to have a strong package in Miami, noting that the characteristics of the car had suited the FW47’s package.
“To be three tenths off pole we must be doing things well this weekend,” the Spaniard added. “I think it might be a bit of an outlier where this track seems to suit our car quite nicely, because since FP1 the balance and everything just fell in the window and in the sweet spot.”
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