Carlos Sainz Jr's bad luck in recent F1 races 'a big frustration'

Sainz has been let down by car problems in Austria, Britain, Hungary, and most recently Belgium.

At Spa his STR10 encountered an electrical fault on the formation lap, forcing Sainz back into the pits just prior to the start.

Although the team were able to get Sainz back out on track, when he rejoined he was two laps down, with the call made to eventually retire him 11 laps from the end to save engine mileage.

Following other electrical issues at Spielberg and Silverstone, and a fuel pressure problem at the Hungaroring, Sainz said: "It's obviously a big frustration, four consecutive races in the points, four consecutive retirements.

"Austria I was P9 when I retired, Silverstone P8, Hungary P5 or P6, and Belgium I started P10, and with everything that happened, without doing nothing special, I would have finished P7.

"When things like this happen you need to stay positive, think that at least in my rookie season these retirements are not coming from me, just things that have nothing to do with me.

"But it's another missed opportunity, so as you can imagine, big frustration for me already.

"At the end it will just make me stronger, character building as you say in your language, and we'll come back stronger in Monza [for the Italian Grand Prix]."

Sainz is happy with how is performing despite the lack of results, and he has no concerns that what has transpired will affect his future with the team.

"I have this big frustration, but it only takes one day to get it out of the way," added Sainz.

"That's because so far this year I have been pretty happy with what I have achieved, like Saturday in Spa, which was a big day for me, to get into Q3 with a couple of very good laps.

"In the end the team knows this perfectly, Red Bull knows this, so I'm not very worried."