Sainz calls for Williams to ‘regroup’ as Albon admits team ‘need to stop’ issues after double DNF in Austria

Carlos Sainz has urged Williams to “regroup” ahead of their home Grand Prix at Silverstone after a double retirement for the squad in Austria, with team mate Alex Albon also conceding that the team “need to stop” their issues following a run of DNFs.

The troubles started early on in the weekend at the Red Bull Ring for Sainz, the Spaniard citing floor damage and brake problems after his Q1 exit in Qualifying that put him down in P19 on the grid.

Come race day, Sainz had made his way to the grid but was unable to pull away when the formation lap got underway, having reported that his car was “stuck in first gear”. Despite eventually getting going, the Williams was ultimately unable to take the start after returning to the pit lane.

Asked if he was surprised at what had happened, Sainz responded: “Yeah, very disappointed obviously to come to Austria and not be able to race, after even so many issues yesterday in Quali and this issue today.

“[We’re] going through a bit of a bad run with a lot of issues as a team so, in a short period of time before our home Grand Prix, we need to regroup and see what we can do better.”

While the Grove-based outfit have endured a tougher run of late – despite still holding fifth place in the Teams’ standings – Sainz is hopeful that their fortunes can be reversed in the near future.

“It’s racing, it’s part of the sport,” the 30-year-old said of Williams’ recent bad luck. “Also as an athlete you always go through luckier times, unluckier times, better times, difficult times.

“The sport has taught me that this can change very quickly. I just need to keep working hard, keep my head down and things will change. But as a team for sure we need to look at many things, regroup and see how we can stop having so many issues.”

The team’s afternoon at the Red Bull Ring took a further hit when Albon was forced to retire after 15 laps. Speaking after jumping out of the car, the Thai driver admitted that he did not yet know the root cause but suggested that there were similarities to his previous DNF last time out in Montreal.

“It felt inside the cockpit a bit like Canada,” Albon explained. “We need to review it, we seem to be struggling a little bit with… I’m not sure if it’s temperature-related, but we’ve had a few DNFs now in a row so it’s a bit annoying, especially when we’re in the fight for points.”

With this marking his third consecutive retirement, the 29-year-old acknowledged that Williams need to quickly address the problems.

“Frustrating, honestly it’s frustrating,” Albon said in his summary of how he was feeling about another DNF.

“I think in the last two races before we were maybe not always there for points – today we clearly were, and so it hurts a bit more today. We just need to make sure we stop it, because it’s hampering our mid part of the season quite a lot.”