Carlos Sainz's car on fire before Austrian GP as formation lap erupts into chaos
The start of the Austrian Grand Prix was engulfed in chaos.
Carlos Sainz's Williams car caused chaos during the formation lap at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Spaniard struggled to get his FW47 off the line, causing the start to be aborted. Then, with mechanics back on the circuit, tending to pole-sitter Lando Norris and the other 18 cars, Sainz finally got going. However, there was more chaos to follow. After making a trip around the Red Bull Ring and pulling into the end of the pit lane, his Williams machine's brakes caught fire.
James Vowles' mechanics rushed to the end of the pit lane with fans and fire extinguishers to avoid a bigger blaze forming, but the damage was done. Sainz's race engineer, Gaetan Jego, dived onto the radio to tell the 30-year-old that his race was over before it had even begun.
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This capped off a miserable Austrian GP weekend for the four-time Grand Prix winner. Sainz was eliminated in Q1 on Saturday, setting him up for a back-row start alongside 20th-placed Nico Hulkenberg. During the session, he complained that his Williams machine was "undriveable".
"We must have picked up damage on the floor, which they just confirmed to me that we did," the Spaniard explained. "I don't know exactly where, because it's not like I went off the track, but something must have fallen off, and we lost a lot of downforce.
"But on top of that, we had a brake issue from the beginning of qualy, with pulling massively and the braking to one side. With the three big braking zones here, I was always going to struggle with that."
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This has not been the season that Sainz envisioned when he joined Williams. The experienced Madrid-born racer has a best finish of eighth this year, while team-mate Alex Albon has over three times his total points.
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"I am not here to test," he said after qualifying. "I am not here to be P19 for sure, so we need to start investigating what's going on. But at the same time, you know, this, how do you say, this bad run of races is happening, and we need as a team to push together and see what we can do better as a whole.
"Yeah, especially when it comes to qualifying and the soft tyre, because honestly, my race pace is good. Every time I'm driving under normal circumstances, I'm quick. But yeah, just putting things together."
