Sainz: Williams Even Further Away Than Expected — F1 Round-Up

Comment of the day

How did a competition as complex and sophisticated as Formula 1 allow such a fundamental error that produced pit lane speeding penalty mistakes in Monaco?

I don’t think this sets a precedent for post-race appeals so much as it exposes failures in the organisers’ processes. For the pit-lane measurement to be off by a full 77cm suggests they either did not measure it properly, or they lack a robust procedure — for example independent confirmation or defined measurement routes — for the checks they do perform.

Either way it’s completely unacceptable. That’s what needs fixing to avoid a repeat of this scenario in Monaco or at any other track on the calendar.
George

Social media and links

Carlos’ honest reflection on a ‘difficult Friday’ in Barcelona (Williams)

“It’s been a very difficult Friday for the team. Unfortunately we’re lacking a lot of pace: in a bit over one lap, but mainly in the race pace which we know is where you get the points. I think as a team we expected to struggle this weekend with our car. We know it’s a very downforce-driven track with high weight sensitivity and we kind of expected that, but I think in the long runs we were even further away than expected. So we’re going to need to find some race pace, we’re going to need to dig deep tonight and if not then we know we have a lot of homework to do on these kinds of tracks and a lot of improvement to make, so we will see what we can do.”

A three-driver Friday (Ferrari)

Lewis Hamilton: “My only session today was quite a challenging one: we had an issue with the front wing which made things a bit more complicated, particularly in terms of tyre preparation, and missing FP1 meant I was a bit on the back foot.”

2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix – practice report (McLaren)

Randy Singh, senior director for racing: “After a couple of challenging events, it’s encouraging to see we’re back on the pace and seemingly in the mix with the other top teams. The characteristics of this circuit and the hotter conditions are playing a different role compared to recent races and we’ve shifted from trying to switch the tyres on to managing overheating and degradation, which seems to suit us better at this early stage. While it’s too soon to say if we’ve fully recaptured the tyre management strengths we had last year, we are optimistic.”

Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix: Practice recap (Haas)

Ayao Komatsu: “The tyres are only one-lap tyres, so you’ve only got one chance to nail it, and we have to make sure we have good enough preparation as we head into FP3 tomorrow.”

FIA WEC reveals nine-round 2027 calendar as series expands (WEC)

“A quartet of quick-fire European contests follow, beginning with the 6 Hours of Imola in Italy before FIA WEC heads back to British shores for round three as Silverstone rejoins the schedule. Just a fortnight later, the well-established Six Hours Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium precedes the season’s showpiece event — the 95th edition of the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

Emozioni (Pirelli)

Pirelli has launched a special site to mark its 500th appearance in a grand prix.

Free practice four highlights – 24 Hours of Le Mans 2026 (WEC)

The yellow flag was deployed at the exact moment I passed the incident and become aware of it in that moment. Quite a high request to slow down with less than 180 meters to go when I am on the straight crossing the finish line and being out of any possible danger.

The performance…

— Joshua Dürksen 🇵🇾 (@JoshuaDuerksen1) June 12, 2026

You can’t measure a car’s speed in a pit lane correctly and you expect everyone to believe you’re ensuring compliance with the budget cap and accurately assessing engine performance for the ADUO and tracking who’s not exceeding their development quotas and… and… and… #F1

— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine.bsky.social) 2026-06-12T11:31:11.971Z

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On this day in motorsport

• 50 years ago today Jody Scheckter scored the only victory for a six-wheeled Formula 1 car, winning the Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp in his Tyrrell P34.
• 40 years ago today the newly completed Hungaroring held its first event, the Eastern Bloc Peace and Friendship Cup. A mix of single-seater and saloon car races were held over three days, attended by around 30,000 people.