Carlos Sainz voices concern as F1 rival unexpectedly switches to 'other league'

Carlos Sainz wants his new team to find another gear after one of their main rivals progressed to "another league". The Spaniard's comments came after last weekend's which proved to be another pointless event for .

The Bahrain weekend promised much for the Williams racer as he qualified eighth on the grid - his highest starting position of 2025 so far. But the 30-year-old had to retire from the race after a collision with which punched a hole in the sidepod of his car.

Sainz has scored just one point so far since he joined from , while team-mate has managed 18. The British-Thai racer's results have helped put Williams firmly in the fight to finish the year as best of the rest behind the top four teams, but will need their new recruit to start contributing more.

And to help him do that, Sainz has said he needs the team to make more progress in the coming weeks and months after the emergence of another rival. started the season slowly but found pace in Bahrain with scoring six points by finishing seventh.

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The Frenchman's rookie team-mate Jack Doohan might also have finished in the top 10 had it not been for the unfortunate timing of the safety car. And Alpine's emergence as a strong competitor certainly has Sainz worried about his chances of scoring points.

Reflecting on his performance in Bahrain, he 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 P11, P10, 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 may have scored in Bahrain had it not been for that race-ending collision with Tsunoda, though he resisted any urge he may have had to vent frustration at the Japanese racer. He added: "He did lose the car, fighting with me, and that cost me the race. 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."