20/10/2025 10:30
Carlos Sainz has explained how he suddenly became "scared" during
his collision with Kimi Antonelli in the United States GP, that
left the Williams driver with multiple FIA penalties. On Lap 6,
Sainz attempted to scythe up the inside of Antonelli at the tight
left-hander of Turn 16, a common overtaking place, but misjudged
the effort and rammed Antonelli into the gravel. Sainz retired
seconds later with the damage he sustained, as he also copped a
five-place grid penalty for Mexico City and two penalty points from
the stewards for being at fault and causing a collision. It came
after Sainz had secured Williams' best-ever result in a Sprint
race, with third the day before, as he recounted the actions behind
the costly incident, with Antonelli going on to take the fastest
lap, but finishing outside of the points in 12th. "I was coming
quite quickly, and felt I had a lot of pace in the car, and had
just done a similar move on Ollie [Bearman] at Turn 15 and went for
the move on Antonelli," Sainz told media, including RacingNews365.
"I think he started to close the door earlier than I expected, and
I locked up and got a bit scared by him closing in on me, and we
collided. "But I think the incident looks worse than it actually is
because in the end, it was a small lock-up with big consequences.
"I could have played it safe, and brought it home the P8 and wonder
what if? "Sometimes it goes perfectly, but with Kimi it was a bit
more aggressive and you go home with zero, so this sport is a very
fine balancing act between playing it safe, bringing home the P8 or
risking it a bit more to try and bring home the P7 - and it didn't
quite work. "One day you look like a hero, the next day, people
will criticise you and bring you down. "So I know it looks bad from
the outside in terms of the lock-up and contact, but honestly, with
the wide apexes that we have here, we both needed to be aware of
the racing, and in this case, we both didn't do a good job."
