Carlos Sainz told why he was ‘partly to blame’ for Williams’ Austrian Grand Prix nightmare

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Carlos Sainz endured the third did-not-start (DNS) of his Formula 1 career at the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix after the rear of his Williams caught fire during the formation lap.

The Red Bull Ring proved to be a very sorry hunting ground for the Grove crew last weekend with Alex Albon also forced to retire from the Austrian GP. A mechanical problem meant the London-born Thai had to park his car on Lap 16 of 70 and Williams left Styria empty-handed.

Albon was Williams’ only hope for some points at the Red Bull Ring after Sainz was forced to retire before the Austrian GP started. The Spaniard initially could not pull away from the grid as his FW47 was stuck in first gear before Sainz’s car caught fire as he went into the pit lane.

The Austrian GP adds to a sorry run for Williams after Albon and Sainz had unrelated cooling problems in the Canadian GP. Albon has also now retired from three consecutive races, after sustaining damage during the Spanish GP in June before having to park his FW47 in Canada.

Carlos Sainz was ‘partly to blame’ for Williams’ Austrian GP woes before his car caught fire

But Marc Surer thinks Carlos Sainz was also ‘partly’ at fault for Williams’ nightmare weekend in the foothills of the Styrian Alps, having sustained damage on his floor during qualifying at the Red Bull Ring. Sainz qualified in P19 for the Austrian GP, while Albon got into Q2 for P12.

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Sainz immediately noted after his Q1 exit last Saturday that his FW47 had felt ‘bad’ to drive, having sensed an issue with his front brakes. But Surer believes the 30-year-old needs to be held to account for the damage that Williams confirmed Sainz had on his floor in qualifying.

“The underbody doesn’t break on its own,” Surer told Motorsport-total. “So, in that sense, he’s partly to blame for his poor qualification.”

What has Carlos Sainz said about his car catching fire at the 2025 F1 Austrian Grand Prix?

Despite Surer’s suggestion that Sainz was at least somewhat at fault for Williams’ nightmare at the Austrian GP, the Madrid native was at a loss to explain how the floor on his FW47 got damaged during qualifying. He posted 1:05.582, with only Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg slower.

Sainz said, via quotes by Motorsport.com: “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 quali, 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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Hulkenberg qualified last for the Austrian GP with a 1:05.606 lap time in Q1, but he went on to score points with P9, behind rookie Sauber teammate Gabriel Bortoleto in P8. Albon was in the points before he was forced to retire from a Grand Prix for the third consecutive race.

Sainz would also have hoped to climb through the order before he retired from the Austrian GP before the race had even started with the Williams racer’s car on fire. Now, the four-time Grand Prix winner wants Williams to see if they have a fundamental issue with their brakes.

He said: “We have to see if there is some kind of relationship between yesterday and today. The fact is that another problem that we have to see exactly what could have happened.

“The car was braked from behind when I started the engine, and I could not move. I managed to reset it, I did a lap and it stopped again from the back, and we had to retire.”