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Sainz misses start of Interlagos weekend due to illness
Carlos Sainz is missing the opening day of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend activities at Interlagos as he recovers from illness.
The Williams driver has been unwell over the past few days and the team confirmed he would not be coming to the track on Thursday, which is a setup day that involves drivers having to undertake mandatory media commitments as well as engineering meetings.
RACER understands Sainz is hopeful of returning to action on Friday for FP1, with the Sprint weekend making the first practice session particularly important ahead of Sprint qualifying later in the day.
The Spaniard most recently missed a race through illness in Saudi Arabia in 2024, when he was diagnosed with appendicitis and required surgery during the race weekend. On that occasion he similarly missed the media day but took part in the first two practice sessions before he was ruled out ahead of FP3 and replaced by Ollie Bearman.
In the event that Williams requires a reserve driver at any stage during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend, it can call on Mercedes reserve Valtteri Bottas to fulfill the duties, as he is on site for Mercedes and available to its customer teams where necessary.
Sainz is currently 11th in the drivers’ championship on 38 points after scoring a podium in Azerbaijan and finishing third in the last Sprint to be held in Austin two rounds ago.
Interlagos saw a driver change through illness a year ago, when Kevin Magnussen was unwell and missed Friday for Haas, being replaced by Oliver Bearman in a move that eventually remained in place for the entire race weekend.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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