Carlos Sainz airs Williams concern after F1 rival switches 'to other league'

Carlos Sainz is hoping for a swift improvement to his Williams after witnessing Alpine move out of the midfield fight with its pace and performance over the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

Williams is currently in a battle for the best of the rest this season behind the leading four teams - McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari - trailing Haas by one point with 19 to its name, more than scored over the entirety of last year.

After a point-less opening three rounds for Alpine, the team thrust itself back into the battle as Pierre Gasly showed considerable pace to qualify fifth.

The Frenchman started fourth after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli served a one-place grid penalty before going on to finish seventh, losing out on sixth following a last-lap overtake from Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Improving rookie Jack Doohan only just missed out on a place in the top 10 in qualifying by 0.017s to the second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda.

Sainz, who has only scored a point so far in his four races with Williams, feels that what he saw from Alpine may be a cause for concern for Williams if it is to claim fifth in the constructors' championship this year.

Speaking to media, and asked by RacingNews365 as to the positives from his weekend in Bahrain, the Spanish driver said: "Good quali, a good start. I've had a couple of good starts in a row with this car. Good attacking first lap, decent pace.

"Just the Alpine was too quick for us, and when you have the top eight cars plus the two Alpines, that's the top 10 positions, and I was there between P 11, P 10, fighting for my life. We were just not quite quick enough.

"We're going in the right trajectory. The weekends will hopefully come a bit more together, and at the same time, we have this little bit to improve on the car to see if we can catch Gasly and Doohan with the Alpine because [in Bahrain] they seemed to be in the other league more than in our league."

Sainz exonerates Tsunoda

During the grand prix, after qualifying in his highest grid slot of the season in eighth, Sainz tried desperately to cling onto the hope of adding to his single-point tally from this season.

It resulted in incidents, one of which ultimately forced him into retirement after being hit on the right-hand sidepod by Tsunoda, opening up a major hole he claims cost him 40 to 50 points of downforce.

At the time, Sainz suggested over the radio that Tsunoda should be investigated for the collision. On reflection, he could understand why the stewards did not intervene.

"He [Tsunoda] did lose the car, fighting with me, and that cost me the race," added Sainz. "At the same time, when I looked at the onboard, it was kind of racing.

"It's just that it cost me my race, a bit of a lack of control from him in that situation. If I was Yuki, and you lost a bit of the car in the middle of a fight, you would understand why you don't want a penalty.

"A bit of a tough one to call, but this time it cost me. I caught the wrong side of the coin, and it what it is."