Carlos Sainz describes his third place at the Qatar Grand Prix as his proudest day for Williams as he secured his second podium in his debut season with the team.
Williams confirmed fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship following Sainz’s finish on the penultimate lap, as the Spaniard’s revival continued in the second half. The Spaniard scored 48 of his 64 points in the last seven races, starting with a podium in Azerbaijan which he then matched in Qatar.
“Baku was a bit of a relief because I had had about ten difficult races,” said Sainz. “I was very fast in the first few races, but things kept happening to me. No results came my way. One of those seasons.”
“I think in an F1 driver’s career you always have years where things don’t go your way for one reason or another. It doesn’t matter whether it’s luck, racing incidents or whatever. It just never comes together.”
“But Baku was a relief. As soon as I had the opportunity to fight for a podium, I took it and gave the team the podium I felt we needed and deserved. Here it is more a combination of hard work and understanding.”
“Extremely proud of the team, because we also had some difficulties at the beginning of this year with the race execution, team calls and qualifying execution. This weekend everyone did a perfect job. The pit stops were also perfect. Everyone was perfect, and that is exactly what we all needed.”
“I think this is my proudest day at Williams. Happiest? Maybe Baku, because I was just so happy to get my first podium for the team. Together with the relief… This is just… I think I’m very proud of everyone. Just very proud of myself, but especially of the whole team for the weekend we performed. More proud than happy – obviously happy too.”
Sainz says the pride comes from how uncompetitive Williams expected to be, and how the team changed its form on similar circuits.
“I’m so happy. So proud of the whole team for what we did today because we came into this weekend thinking it was going to be the hardest weekend of the year and suddenly we came out with a podium,” he said.
“We had the race pace right. I was super fast, much faster than expected. We got the strategy right. We got the tire management right, the start right, all the defense and management right, and that gave us an unexpected podium. I couldn’t be more proud.”
“That’s why we did everything right today. We had a difficult first half of the season where things weren’t coming together, but we improved in so many areas throughout the year. Today there were a few opportunities that we could take, and we took them all by running a perfect race. To be honest, I’m over the moon with this podium because I definitely didn’t expect it.”
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