F1 News: Furious Sainz Jr. slams Lawson and FIA after Dutch GP
(GMM) Carlos Sainz Jr.’s (pictured) season of frustration boiled over at Zandvoort, as the Williams driver lashed out at rival Liam Lawson and the FIA stewards.
Without a Ferrari seat for 2025 and overlooked by the other top teams too, Sainz’s patience appeared to be turning into rage after the Dutch GP.
“Today, the story of my season,” he scowled after finishing outside the points.
“I’m starting to get really angry, because another weekend I’m going fast, another weekend I was ahead of Alex (Albon) once again, and you see Alex finish P5 and me finish outside the points when I was ahead.”
The flashpoint came in a clash with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, who earlier this year was dropped by Red Bull’s senior team.
Sainz Jr. was hit with a 10-second penalty – a decision he labeled “the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life.”
“Maybe it’s about picking battles better,” he told DAZN. “It’s clear that Lawson isn’t someone you can even attempt going wheel to wheel with.
“Honestly, I wasn’t even trying to overtake, I was forcing him to close me up so he could get a bit on dirty tires, and from there I had a chance on the next lap. Yet he decided it was better to open the wheel and crash than to just hold it.”
Sainz contrasted Lawson with the “top drivers” he has raced in the recent past.
“There are drivers with whom you can go wheel to wheel with – Checo, Fernando, Gasly, Verstappen, Leclerc, Piastri,” he said. “With Liam, it’s not the first time this has happened with him in this category, but it is what it is.”
He went further in comments to Spanish newspaper El Mundo Deportivo, accusing the New Zealander of seizing “an opportunity to put a driver out.”
Asked if Lawson was a dirty driver, Sainz replied: “No, but he prefers contact to being overtaken.”
As for the stewards’ call, he was similarly scathing.
“That the driver on the outside is now a passenger in response to what the driver on the inside decides to do seems unbelievable and makes no sense at all. Someone has to explain this to me.
“What I believe I suffered today worries me for myself but also for motorsport in general. To give a penalty to the guy on the outside, who has nothing to do with the collision, seems outrageous to me and a brutal lack of coherence.”
Sainz, newly installed as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, vowed to take the matter further. “I think that as director of the GPDA, it obviously worries me, it worries me a lot,” he said.
“I will go to the FIA and I will have them explain it to me.”
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Lawson Hits Back at Sainz Jr.
“He was overtaking me today, and I also think he got a penalty today, so he can make all the comments in the world he likes,” Lawson said. “I wish he’d just come and talk to me about it rather than telling everybody else.
“But you know, if it was my fault, I would have gotten a penalty.
“I understand his frustration. We don’t want to be in these situations, and I’ve been on the receiving end as well.
“It’s just the way the rules are written, and we all know that.”
The Racing Bulls driver described Sainz’s attempt as “risky” given the cold tires and slippery conditions.
“It’s fine to go for the move, but it’s just risky. In the end, we made contact, which was not ideal, but that’s why he got a penalty,” he said.
