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Carlos Sainz's maiden win at the 2022 F1 British GP was a long time coming and not 'out of the blue', according to former world champion Damon Hill.
The Spaniard claimed his first ever win in F1 at the 150th time of asking, one day after bagging his maiden pole position. In the process, he became the first driver since Pastor Maldonado to achieve both feats in one race weekend.
Damon Hill believes Carlos Sainz winning an F1 race was an inevitability for the Spaniard. Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast after a thrilling race weekend at Silverstone, the Briton said:
“The thing is when you talk about luck, you can get really lucky and something landed on your lap. But I mean, the fact of the matter is, if you keep knocking on the door, opportunity sometimes comes your way, the door opens.”
“But if you don’t knock on the door hard enough, then you’re not there when it happens and he’s been there. He’s been there trying to do it. Clearly he wasn’t as quick as Charles [Leclerc] in the race as well but then he grabbed the opportunity when the pit stop came and I don’t know whether he got on the radio and said ‘I’m coming in; or whether it was them that said it but he argued the case also to be allowed to race as well.”
Hill went on to add, saying:
“You’re talking about it as if it was out of the blue and I think it wasn’t out the blue. I think it’s been coming for a while. I think he’s been in the hunt and in in the frame and he’s got the desire. There’s no doubt about that. I mean, Charles is a really fast driver and he’s got the jump on on Carlos [Sainz] but I think confidence is a huge thing in our sport. Some drivers suddenly find another level and I hope this win will do it for Carlos.”
"It was probably, mentally, one of the toughest races" - Carlos Sainz after 2022 F1 British GP win
Carlos Sainz believes his win at the 2022 F1 British GP was one of his toughest races mentally.
Speaking to the media at the post-race press conference at Silverstone, Carlos Sainz gave a detailed description of his ordeal. He said:
“Well, it hasn’t quite sunk in yet, I think, because I’m very happy, but yeah, I’m waiting for the minutes to go by and to realise what has actually happened today, you know. To win my first race in front of this amazing crowd, with Ferrari, in Silverstone, one of my favourite circuits, it’s amazing. And yeah, it wasn’t easy at all.”
The 27-year-old further added, saying:
“It was probably, mentally, one of the toughest races, because there was so much going on on the radio, trying to manage both the gap to Charles [Leclerc] and Lewis [Hamilton] and at the beginning, with Max [Verstappen] there was a lot of fighting going on. I wasn’t completely comfortable with the car. I was struggling a lot with understeer in the high-speed corners, opening a lot of the front-left tyre and this was taking me out a lot of pace, but I kept it cool, kept believing, kept within reach all the time. And suddenly when the opportunity came, I grabbed it and it happened.”
Sainz is currently fourth in the World Drivers' Championship Standings with 127 points heading into the 2022 F1 Austrian GP.
