Carlos Sainz takes full responsibility for the Williams team collision with Alexander Albon at Zandvoort and considers the penalty justified
Carlos Sainz has taken full responsibility for the in-team collision with his Williams teammate Alexander Albon during the Formula 1 race at Zandvoort and called the penalty “fair.” The Spaniard was handed a ten-second time penalty for the collision shortly before the end of the race.
With six laps to go, Albon—on better tires—attempted to pass his teammate on the start-finish straight and positioned himself on the outside heading into Turn 1, when Sainz’s wheels locked up under braking and he slid straight into Albon’s car, damaging it. As a result, both Williams drivers were forced to pull into the pit lane.
“I was a little surprised when I tried to defend. I had really worn-out hard tires and was struggling immensely with the car and with my race pace,” Sainz said, attempting to explain. “And when I tried to brake on the inside, there was a huge bump on the inside of Turn 1. The further you go on the inside, the bigger it gets.”
The Spaniard says he bottomed out, causing the wheels to lift off the ground as he hit the brakes. “That caused me to overshoot the braking point and take Alex with me—which is the absolute worst possible outcome for this race, since it wasn’t as if we were fighting for anything significant,” he laments.
At that point, the two Williams drivers were in 15th and 16th place, just ahead of Sergio Perez. “But honestly: It took me completely by surprise. My apologies to him, because that was the last thing I wanted.”
Albon: Not Like Verstappen/Ricciardo in 2018
Since there was nothing at stake for Williams anyway, Albon doesn’t want to overreact to the incident: “This isn’t like Verstappen and Ricciardo; it’s less serious than that,” he says, alluding to the crash involving the former Red Bull teammates in Baku in 2018.
Nevertheless, he places the full blame on Sainz: “If I’m being completely honest, that was simply on him,” said the Thai driver. “I think he braked too hard. I saw him brake too hard, so I immediately tried to follow him straight ahead. But we made contact, and my underbody was pretty damaged, so we had to pit.”
There, Albon parked his car, but was still classified 17th based on the distance he’d covered, while the penalty had no effect on Sainz, since he had finished last anyway.
Albon is frustrated: We pitted too early
More than the incident, he’s frustrated by yet another poor result, which was a missed opportunity for him. For a long time, Albon was ahead of Fernando Alonso, who ultimately finished ninth and scored two unexpected points for Aston Martin.
“But I think we pitted too early. If you look at how our race unfolded: when we stopped, we came out behind a group of seven or eight cars. I need to understand why we pitted so early, because we truly had a chance to score points today,” he said, frustrated.
“If you look at our pace, it wasn’t fantastic. But by starting on the hard tires, we actually gave ourselves the chance to overtake many of the cars behind us with an overcut.”
However, the in-team collision was the icing on the cake of yet another disappointing weekend.