Carlos Sainz says third place at the Qatar Grand Prix was his proudest day for Williams, marking his second podium in his debut season with the team.
Sainz’s finish in the penultimate rounds cemented Williams fifth place in the constructors’ championship as the Spaniard continued his late comeback. The Spaniard has scored 48 of the 64 points in the last seven races, starting with a podium in Azerbaijan and also finishing on the podium in Qatar.
“Baku was a bit of a relief because we’ve had 10 very difficult races,” Sainz said. “I was very fast in the first few races, but something always happens to me and the results don’t follow. It’s one of those seasons.
“I think there are always years in a Formula 1 driver’s career where things don’t go right for whatever reason. It doesn’t matter if it’s luck or something that happens at a race or whatever, it just never goes right.
“But I was relieved for Baku. As soon as I had the chance to fight for a podium, I took it and gave the team the podium that I felt it needed and deserved. Here it’s a combination of hard work and understanding.”
“I’m very proud of the team, because we too were struggling a little bit earlier in the year with race execution, team calls, qualifying execution. Everyone did a perfect job this weekend. Also, the pit stops were perfect. Everyone was perfect and it was exactly what we all needed.”
“I think it’s my proudest day at Williams. Happiest? Maybe Baku, because I was really happy to get our first podium with the team. With a sense of relief…this…I think I’m really proud of everyone. I’m just very proud of myself, but mainly proud of the whole team for getting through this weekend. I’m more proud than happy, and obviously happy too.”
Sainz said his pride stemmed from how uncompetitive he expected Williams to be and how the team turned things around at similar circuits.
“I’m very happy. The whole team is proud of what we did today, because we went into this weekend thinking it was going to be the most difficult weekend of the year and all of a sudden we were on the podium,” he said.
“We got the race pace really well. I was very fast, a lot faster than I expected. We executed the strategy well. We did the tire management well, we got the start well, we defended and managed everything well and it gave us an unexpected podium. I couldn’t be more proud.”
“That’s why everything went well today. We had a tough period in the first half of the season when things didn’t go our way, but we’ve improved in so many areas over the past year. We had some chances today, but we grabbed them all by running a perfect race. To be honest, we weren’t expecting this podium at all so I’m overjoyed.”
