Carlos Sainz is facing a tricky dilemma in today’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix — should he go all-out to defend against Lewis Hamilton or play it smart? Williams boss James Vowles has some advice: don’t waste energy fighting a battle you can’t win.
For the second race in a row, Sainz has outqualified Hamilton, the man who replaced him at Ferrari. That’s no small feat, especially in a Williams. Vowles was seriously impressed, calling Sainz’s qualifying lap “brilliant” and praising his composure under pressure.
“I’m really proud of the steps Carlos is making” Vowles said. “He was really in control. It was great to hear him on the radio, in control of what was going on in the session and just working with the team on the best run plan to get him up as high as possible.”
But here’s the problem — last week in Bahrain, Sainz pushed too hard trying to keep Hamilton behind him. He burned through his tyres early, wrecking his chances later in the race. Vowles reckons Sainz needs to be more strategic this time.
“Carlos said this himself, but we have to take a little bit of care with Lewis” Vowles admitted. “We can qualify there, but we’re not quite on that race pace yet.”
Translation? Points are possible, but only if Sainz doesn’t get sucked into a fight he can’t sustain. The Williams isn’t as quick as the Ferrari or Mercedes over a full race distance, so picking battles wisely is key.
Sainz seems to agree. After Bahrain, he admitted he needs to “pick my fights a bit better.” Some tracks, like Monaco, are worth defending hard — but on faster circuits like Jeddah, sometimes you’ve just got to let the faster cars go.
Meanwhile, Williams are quietly having a solid weekend. Both Sainz and Alex Albon have been quick, with Albon missing out on Q3 by a heartbreaking 0.007 seconds. Still, P6 for Sainz is a massive result and with Jeddah’s reputation for chaos (hello, Safety Cars and red flags), anything could happen.
“Wow, great lap” Vowles told Sainz after qualifying. “Really well done, Carlos. Really well executed. Good management with Verstappen at the end there.”
Sainz’s reply? “Thank you, JV. Let's do tomorrow what we didn’t do in Bahrain.”
Game on.
