“Keep Up This Energy”: Fans Approve as Carlos Sainz Snaps at His Race Engineer to Stamp Authority

Carlos Sainz hasn’t quite hit the ground running at Williams this season. Transitioning from Ferrari has proved difficult, with teammate Alex Albon—the team’s lead driver since 2022—comfortably outperforming him so far. While Albon has scored 18 points, Sainz has managed just one from the first four races.

The FW47 is no Ferrari, but it’s still competitive compared to the cars Williams has built in recent years. They appear to be in the hunt for points at every race—something Albon has capitalized on well. Sainz, meanwhile, is still familiarizing himself with the process, philosophy, and feel of the car, which is understandably quite different from what he was used to at Ferrari.

That said, the Madrid-born driver needs to pull up his socks quickly and start matching his teammate’s performances. And for that, he’ll need all the help and guidance he can get from his race engineer, Gaetan Jego.

However, even building a strong dynamic with his new race engineer is proving to be part of the challenge for Sainz. This was evident during the FP1 session of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier today, as the 30-year-old had a tense back-and-forth with Jego.

Jego was advising Sainz not to recharge his batteries during their practice runs, but the Spaniard snapped back: “Let me do whatever I want, please. I know what I’m doing.”

Perhaps Sainz is choosing to take matters into his own hands as he looks to break free from a struggle-filled start to life at Williams.

Fully aware that he joined the Grove-based squad to lead their long-term project back to the front of the field, Sainz knows he can’t afford to take his own sweet time to settle in.

Especially when he has a teammate like Albon, who has been outstanding over the past three seasons and is clearly aiming to cement himself as the team’s number-one driver. Fans on social media also believe that Sainz’s aggressive demeanor is exactly what Williams needs during this period of transition.

“Lets keep up this energy yeahhh,” one fan posted on X (formerly Twitter) after listening to the #55 driver’s assertive radio call to Jego.

“I know what im doing *albon is 3-1up*”, another user commented, highlighting the Albon factor in Sainz trying to push himself to improve in Jeddah.

“Carlitos is starting to be Carlitos again”, read another reply to Sainz’s radio transcript.

Now, this was just the first radio exchange between the 30-year-old and his race engineer. Sainz later returned to the radio to voice his frustration with Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, criticizing the spot where he was let through on the circuit.

“**. The Ferrari. Woah, it’s so dangerous. He cannot let me by there. Please, someone tell the Ferrari not to let people by there. It’s so dangerous.”

Given that Jeddah is a fast and narrow street circuit with corners coming thick and fast, it presents a high risk for impeding incidents and features multiple blind spots around the track. In such conditions, it’s crucial for the race engineer to provide timely, preemptive warnings about slow-moving cars ahead and others on flying laps behind.

Sainz did not receive such a warning about Hamilton’s car late in the FP1 session, and he quickly made his frustration clear to Jego. Hopefully, the driver-engineer duo can sort out their communication sooner rather than later, allowing them to shift their focus to performance.