Sainz rues ‘tough’ run of races as he says ‘everything that could go wrong this year has gone wrong for me’

Carlos Sainz has given his reflections on what has been a “tough” run of races for himself and Williams during the first half of the season, with the Spaniard stating that “everything that could go wrong this year so far has gone wrong for me”.

The Grove-based outfit are currently holding fifth place in the Teams’ Championship on 59 points, putting them 18 points clear of closest rivals Kick Sauber in sixth.

However, 46 of these points have been earned by Alex Albon, with Sainz facing a run of difficult weekends that has seen him fail to score since a P10 finish in Canada.

The 30-year-old was unable to start the Austrian Grand Prix due to an issue with his car, while contact with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc dropped him down the order one week later at Silverstone, meaning that he crossed the line in P12.

Asked earlier on in the British Grand Prix weekend about what he had learned so far in the first half of the season, Sainz conceded: “Definitely we are going through a tough period with reliability issues, with weekend execution problems as you could see [in Austria], and the last few weekends I think have been extremely difficult for us as a team.

“For me on my side of the garage, running through multiple issues in Qualifying and the race, the one thing that keeps me hopeful and confident is that my speed has always been there throughout the year.

“So that's something that we need to just bank on and make sure that we stop making these mistakes and making the kind of issues that are hampering us in important moments of the weekend.”

Reflecting further on the problems that have afflicted him at several races, Sainz reiterated that he is still taking positives from the fact that he feels comfortable in the Williams FW47.

“I think everything that could go wrong this year so far has gone wrong for me, and it's been a run of races where we've had highlights and some good moments, but in the majority of it it's been very scrappy from every part involved,” the four-time race winner explained.

“We're keen to get this run of bad races to an end, because we're making too many mistakes for the car that we have.

“The one thing that keeps me smiling is the speed that I have in the car and with the team, and I know we should be finishing every weekend as top of the midfield, except for maybe Barcelona and a few other places.

“The speed is there, I feel comfortable in the car, we just don't seem to get a break in terms of luck and execution of the weekend [and] reliability.

“Just way too many issues for the car we have, but at some point it's going to end and as soon as I get a bit of momentum going I know what we're capable of doing.”

Sainz will be hoping for better when Formula 1 heads to Belgium for the next round on the calendar during the weekend of July 25-27.