Carlos Sainz rues overlooked 'incredible chance' after costly Australian GP crash

Carlos Sainz has detailed the Australian Grand Prix was a “missed opportunity” to build a relationship with his new race engineer at Williams.

The event in Melbourne marked Sainz's first grand prix with the Grove-based squad following his move from Ferrari.

However, at the final corner on the opening lap of the race, Sainz spun into the wall as the field circulated behind the safety car, bringing his day to a heartbreaking close.

The race was one of significant attrition as mixed conditions caused multiple drivers to spin off while difficult strategy choices had to be made in the heat of the moment.

Sainz highlighted it would have been a strong opportunity to build a relationship with his new race engineer, Gaëtan Jego.

“I didn't get to drive such a demanding race from the communications side in Australia and I've missed that experience to build with my engineer,” Sainz told media including RacingNews365.

“It is exactly a kind of race where I think I can make a difference as a driver, if you help me read the situation well, we could have got a good result.”

Williams to simulate Australian GP to boost Sainz-engineer relationship

Williams' pain of losing Sainz early in the race was eased somewhat by a stunning result for team-mate Alex Albon.

The Thai driver crossed the line in fifth place, marking Williams' best season-opening result since the 2016 season.

Despite missing out on the opportunity to go through the difficult on-track period with his engineer, Sainz revealed the team is planning to simulate the race back at the factory in a bid to boost the relationship with the team.

“We’re going to go through it back at base at some point, this race, [as] if I was driving it, just to make sure we've actually raced the race. 

“We've missed an incredible chance to build up on it.

“[There are] still 23 [races] left so it's not like I [don't] have plenty of them to come.

“It's that one race where you have a massive you do a big learning curve, probably like Lewis [Hamilton] and Ricci [Adami].

“They will learn a lot from it and keep moving forward.”