Carlos Sainz responds to Isack Hadjar furious radio message about him in Monza

Carlos Sainz responded to Isack Hadjar's "cheeky" radio message during the qualifying session at Monza for the 2025 F1 Italian GP earlier this month. The two drivers had a close encounter during Q1, and Hadjar blamed Sainz for wrecking his lap.

The Italian GP wasn't a very fruitful one for Hadjar, who had just scored his first podium in Zandvoort prior to that race. He did not make it out of Q1 and started the race from P16. However, on the team radio, he blamed Williams Racing's Carlos Sainz, stating that he had to compromise his lap, following which he could not set another competitive one in the final moments of Q1.

"He was just super annoying on the outlap. He was not going to push anyway," he said (via PlanetF1). "I don’t know why he was fighting so hard for track position and then just let me by on my lap, so I compromised the outlap for nothing."

However, these comments were a bit "cheeky," as per Carlos Sainz. Speaking to the media ahead of the Azerbaijan GP, he claimed that Hadjar did not know what he was trying to do on the outlap. Sainz further explained that he was trying to extract the most from his outlap to get locked into Q2, which he did manage to do, starting the race in P13.

"I don’t believe other drivers are that mean, a bit cheeky, but the mean… everyone is so nervous in those last rounds of Q1 and everyone’s fighting for themselves," Sainz said.

He added:

"But yeah, I think going back to last week, Isack misinterpreted the run plan that I was doing. I don’t think Isack was understanding what I was doing." "I think he thought I was just playing around with him because I wanted to open the lap in front of him, and when in reality, I was never going to fight for the position. I was just pushing like crazy to get my outlap and make it to the front."

Sainz moved to Williams Racing this season after Ferrari replaced him with Lewis Hamilton. The Spaniard has been delivering quite a few competitive and consistent results, helping the team collect the most points they have scored in the past five seasons.

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Carlos Sainz comments on Williams' "limitation" after initial practice sessions in Baku

Carlos Sainz during the Friday practice session(s) of the 2025 F1 Azerbaijan GP (Getty Images)

The first two practice sessions at Baku ended with a P8 and a P11 for Carlos Sainz as the car missed out on competitiveness around certain parts of the track. The Williams has been known for its extremely high speed in a straight line; however, it fails to perform in corners, costing immense laptime.

Speaking to the media after the end of the practice sessions on Friday, Sainz explained that the car is quite competitive on a long run, considering its stint with the medium tires; however, it fails to perform on a one-lap basis, hampering the soft tire stint. He stated that this is one of the limitations that the team needs to find a balance with.

"Yeah, a bit like always," Carlos Sainz said. "We're very quick in the long runs, very quick on the medium tire on the first run, but then as soon as we put the soft tire on at the end, we didn't manage to find any lap time. So, clearly a limitation and something we need to keep working on for tomorrow."

Williams Racing hasn't been the most competitive team on the grid in recent years; however, they have managed to extract a lot more pace from their car this season.

Edited by Gunaditya Tripathi