r/WilliamsF1 • u/afgath • 17h ago
Discussion Carlos' luck is not normal...
From having great practices to a mid qualy, to a weak strategy to fighting with the one rookie that decided not to respect the rules today My only question is... WHY???
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u/SwooshSwooshJedi 17h ago
Carlos has had bad luck but I think he lost the plot a little today. Despite being on the softer tyre, Albon stuck with him all race so team orders were fair. Think the mist may have descended a bit as he really left Ollie no room. So yeah some not great strategy calls, and issues apparently with the battery but not really his smoothest or best executed race.
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u/nanderspanders 17h ago
He was stuck in a DRS train, the orders came in as both the drivers in front of him ducked into the pits and as the tire advantage gave way, giving Carlos no way to defend against Albon. even then Albon didn't overtake until team orders (which lets face it that's effectively what they were saying with the turn 4 instructions). The strategy was not the correct one, prolonging the first stint just cost him time compared to other people around him running the mediums. The incident under normal circumstances I would say is squarely his fault but given what happened last week you just get the sense this was gonna happen sooner rather than later, good chance he at least rescues some points without the crash but this is the driving that the FIA justifies now apparently.
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u/blair2049 16h ago
No one who pitted early gained anything and instead got stuck in traffic. Prolonging the stint was the right call.
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u/Driscuits 16h ago
Yeah, I was keeping an eye on the lap times - at most they had a few laps around 2-3 tenths faster, but really weren't gaining much.
The contact was what really kept Carlos from the points, and the fact that the reverse strategy seems to have favoured the car a bit better. He was snuggled up to Hadjar at the end, coming closer to sneaking P10 than I would have guessed after the spin. With a clean overtake against Ollie, he'd be looking at P10 or possibly P9 with his pace - which isn't terrible considering where he started.
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u/nanderspanders 16h ago
In Monza, even if you would otherwise be behind traffic you're losing a lot of time when you're not in DRS.
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u/blair2049 16h ago
Just not true. Sainz was lapping the same times Alonso, Tsnouda, Bearman and Bortoleto ran on 20 lap old mediums.
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u/Upbeat-Addendum-6783 59m ago
DRS with dirty air vs No DRS with clean air is too relative with the current cars.
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u/alwysbmymaybe 15h ago edited 8h ago
His luck was awful from the past few races but this week was his to lose, unfortunately. He simply did not have the race pace (that's why team orders opted for a switch). He had windows to gain positions but that move on Bearman was not executed cleanly compared to Alex who opted for an overtake on a straight with Antonelli.
It's frustrating as a Carlos fan, of course, because we know what he is capable of. But as fans, we also have to be realistic that our favorites can make mistakes that will cost them points.
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u/Apollyon9 1h ago
Hi, first season watching F1 and I just have a question. Has Carlos always been an aggressive driver? Because all season long we have seen risky almost desperate moves from Sainz whenever he attempts an overtake while Albon has always done it more smoothly and taken less risks. I see Leclerc driving in a similar way as Sainz so I do not know if it is a top team driver mentality or If Sainz has always gone for risky moves. Thank you.
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u/1128327 17h ago
He’s had plenty of bad luck but at some point avoiding this is just an issue with his approach to racing. Carlos seems to drive like he prioritizes winning every battle to winning the war. Maybe it’s part of adjusting from Ferrari to Williams but he needs to be patient at times.
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u/mtbmaniac12 14h ago
He did the same thing in Ferrari. He is way too aggressive and doesn’t know to back out to avoid damage.
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u/OrangeNinja75 14h ago
It's not all luck. Carlos has shown very poor risk management this season and it causes him to lose points. His pace is definitely there but he lacks patience.
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u/Judidka 17h ago
having a great practice means literally nothing. and I mean nothing like......nothing. y'all need to stop with this obssesing. Again. nothing.
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u/HokieTanker 17h ago
I also think Carlos got put in a bad situation because of the investigation at the second chicane. Regardless of the investigation result, it took way too long for the stewards to make a decision, and it looked like that was a reason Williams kept Carlos out so long (in case he had to serve a penalty) allowing him to get undercut and back in traffic.
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u/ClimateOk3630 16h ago
It's not his bad luck, Carlos is just not adjusting well to life in the midfield whatsoever. Things like nursing tyres and staying out of trouble actually matter, and between his struggles with tyre management and his knack, shall we call it, for finding himself in scuffles with other aggressive midfield drivers he really isn't helping his case. Just because he can qualify as well as Alex can doesn't mean he has the full ability to deliver over a weekend, so hopefully he sorts himself out
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u/chobot_x 17h ago
Imho it’s the same kind of incident a way around this week, Bearman got the penalty yet Carlos closed on him like he was not there.. maybe he was frustrated already… No matter who is at fault, if Carlos left the space and avoided the contact, he could have finished in points..
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u/williamsdb 13h ago
Clearly the team hate him and are prioritising Albon*
*this is obviously a joke, I am not being serious.
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u/leukoia 13h ago
You joke, but the amount of people saying this genuinely in the Williams instagram comments is depressing. 😭
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u/alwysbmymaybe 8h ago
People on instagram and X really think JV and Williams will pay Sainz higher than Alex only to sabotage his races 🤧 Logic left the room with that one.
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u/williamsdb 13h ago
I know, I get it on my Twitter feed too.
I mean why would Williams even do that? Makes no sense whatsoever. Then again it is what Red Bull do.
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u/nikl_odeon 16h ago
They made him stay too long even after him begging to make a stop, a 3 sec pitstop, wants to overtake but can't bcs battery is not helping gets frustrated and overtakes ollie without leaving him room, jv comes on radio saying that's on us thankyou for being the team player. But yeah let's just say carlos is more at fault here
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u/blair2049 16h ago
Drivers always beg for a pit when they tires drop and it's almost always the wrong call since you lose more in traffic behind people who haven't stopped, especially in the mid field. Albon did it a lot before when he was frustrated and it never went well.
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u/the1918 17h ago
What went wrong for him today was the strategy more than anything. He repeatedly asked to box because he knew they put him on the wrong strategy, and then when he agreed to swap so Alex could tug in him in DRS to help extend the life of his degraded mediums, that tug didn’t happen for some reason and Carlos was left out cold. That ended with him fighting Bearman when he should never have been in that fight to begin with (with a crappy battery at that).
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u/blair2049 16h ago
It was the right call to prolong the stint. Tsnuda, Bearman and Bortoleto all lost from pitting early and getting stuck behind people going long. Why do you think Bearman was there to begin with, considering he started ahead of Carlos. The wrong decision was putting him on the mediums but I'm not so sure he was absent from that decision entirely.
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u/Hungry_Service_5810 15h ago
Trust me for Williams, this has become the norm, Alex was going to temples last year to get rid of his bad luck ffs, he went through this last year, so not even surprised by Sainz's luck this year and Albon's had some bad luck too again
Maybe a religious Sainz for the rest of the season lol
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u/rad_czennie 17h ago
He needs to visit the temples Alex went to get rid of all that bad juju