Carlos Sainz Jr. walks away from a disappointing weekend yet again in the triple header. [Credits: X/ Williams F1]

Why was Carlos Sainz Awarded a Wrong Penalty for Jeddah?

Carlos Sainz had a frustrating weekend in Bahrain and the FIA decided to rub some salt in it.

Carlos Sainz Jr. walks away from a disappointing weekend yet again in the triple header. [Credits: X/ Williams F1]

Carlos Sainz Jr. definitely did not have the best start to his season in 2025. His new stint with Williams is one of the hardest ones in his career. Sainz has been a part of the strongest teams of F1 in the past few years. The effect he had with those teams was positively increasing his personal achievements as an F1 driver. Sainz Jr. had a reputation of being among the top drivers of the grid.

Carlos Sainz had to part ways with Ferrari in 2025 after spending four years with them, racing alongside Charles Leclerc. Sainz won his first race in F1 at Ferrari. With Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari a dependable lineup in the fast few years. He was also the only driver to win a race from a non-Red Bull team in 2023. Sainz was never lagging behind Leclerc, he was incredibly competitive with the Monegasque.

Not the result we wanted after a promising start to the season.

We’ll regroup and come back fighting in Jeddah to close out the triple-header.#DrivenByMyprotein @Myprotein pic.twitter.com/6PsU8zLqOD
— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) April 13, 2025

However, the signing of Lewis Hamilton and the prospect of his past achievements made Sainz step down from his role. He joined Williams for 2025, a team which had the track record of being the worst team on the grid for years. Sainz had to do a lot of homework in his team. But, lately things aren’t going well for him. He has two DNFs in four races in 2025.

It’s not that Carlos Sainz is not fast. He shows a lot of promises the practice sessions. Yet, when it comes to qualifying and races, Sainz suffers from lack of understanding of his car. The Bahrain GP 2025 was no exception.

Carlos Sainz Gets His Race Ruined At Bahrain

Carlos Sainz was starting P8 on the grid this Sunday. For once, he had a good race pace and was able to climb into the Q3 during the qualifying session. Williams were hoping that Sainz would help them claim a lot of points with his teammate Alex Albon. However, things were about to take a wrong turn during the race.

There's some lore behind this one 😏

Carlos Sainz goes wheel-to-wheel with his Ferrari replacement Lewis Hamilton during a great battle in Bahrain ⚔️#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/zOONDlHHfN
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 14, 2025

As soon as the Bahrain GP was underway, we could see some of the old speed that Sainz had the previous year at Ferrari. He was flawlessly overtaking cars and climbing through grid, even after his pit-stop. Carlos was able to snatch P6 from Tsunoda. However, at lap 31 going into Turn-1 Tsunoda fully turned into him causing a wreckage. The contact with Tsunoda left a hole in Carlos Sainz’s car.

Sainz was trying his best to work out a solution, but to no avail. His Williams had already given after a huge damage. Then, Sainz was also a 10s penalty for forcing Kimi Antonelli off track after the race restart. Fans argue that it was merely a small racing incident. Yet, Sainz had to suffer from it. Carlos Sainz was already in 16th and the penalty wasn’t really going to cause any significant harm to his race.

Carlos was compaining about the fact that, the stewards did not even consider handing a penalty to Tsunoda. The Red Bull driver from Japan had effectively ended Sainz’s race in one collision.

Hear from James as he reflects on a tough weekend in Bahrain.
— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) April 13, 2025

The Moment It Went Wrong for Sainz and Williams

His car had not speed left and there was no point in competing during the race anymore. Sainz was called into the pits on lap 47 with 10 lap to go. He was asked to retire the car. It was a huge moment of disappointment for the entire team.

But, suddenly they were informed that Sainz would get a three place grid penalty in Jeddah because he did not serve his 10s penalty earlier on. This is where things get complicated. Earlier on, Williams deliberately called him in serve a 10s penalty through the pit -stop. Yet, somehow FIA race control did not log this action.

LAP 47/57

It's all over for Carlos Sainz ❌

Damage to his sidepod picked up in his contact with Tsunoda has forced Williams to retire the car #F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/WhLXszzv2w
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 13, 2025

FIA debated that due to some error, they never knew about this. Hence, they wrongfully asked Sainz to serve a penalty in Jeddah. After protests from Williams and proof that he did serve the 10s penalty before retiring his car, FIA had to reverse his grid drop

The weird penalties and wrong decisions taken by FIA this weekend have annoyed the fans. The entire paddock is angry at the race control for ruining so many different drivers. However, its upto FIA to mitigate the damage they have already created. Its not like the FIA have a good image in front of the community and drivers either. As for Carlos Sainz, he was earlier fined for trivial reasons in Japan.

Williams need to set things straight with their drivers. Alex Albon has been carrying the team single-handedly. Carlos Sainz has clarified that he needs a few races to adapt to his car. Even though, Williams faced a retirement on his end, things look better for them. Sainz was very quick this weekend and we hope that he carries over his race pace to Jeddah as well.

Bahrain Grand Prix 2025

Carlos Sainz Jr.

Formula 1

Formula 1 2025 Season

Williams F1

Rohan Singh

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I work as a Writer at The Playoffs specialising in NHL, Formula 1 and Motorsports. I got into online journalism a couple of years ago. I used to be an intern for a website managing their Formula 1 content and then I served an entire year as a contractual writer.