Rosberg fumes over Sainz-Bearman call as Albon outshines Williams teammate again at Monza
Nico Rosberg didn’t wait for the question to land before delivering his verdict. Moments after Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman tangled at Monza’s second chicane, the 2016 World Champion was adamant: the wrong driver got punished.
Bearman copped a 10-second penalty for clashing with Sainz mid-corner — the Haas rookie had dived up the inside with meaningful overlap, clipped Sainz’s left-rear as the Williams turned in, and sent both pirouetting. They rejoined and finished out of the points, Sainz in 11th, Bearman 12th, but the stewards’ call left Rosberg incredulous on Sky’s coverage.
“Bearman’s got half a car alongside — that’s not a token front wing,” Rosberg argued, questioning why Sainz didn’t allow room. It was a sentiment echoed, albeit more diplomatically, by Williams development driver Jamie Chadwick, who felt the penalty on Bearman was harsh and avoidable had the Williams given a touch more space.
The decision was doubly sore for Sainz’s season narrative. Five straight point-less Sundays now for the Spaniard, who sits 18th in the standings with 16 points, while his teammate Alex Albon is sprinting in the other direction. Albon banked seventh at Monza — his fourth top-10 in five races — to move to P7 in the Drivers’ Championship on 70 points, edging ahead of Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli. It’s a gulf Rosberg finds hard to ignore.
“Alex is just delivering, week on week,” Rosberg said. “It’s becoming the story of their season — Albon excellent, Sainz in the wars and leaving points on the table.”
Sainz, for his part, rejected the notion he was to blame in the Bearman incident. He insisted he left “a car width” on the inside and had braked as late as he dared on the outside line — a classic Monza squeeze where, as he put it, “one of the two needs to back out.” He maintained he was ahead at the apex and that Bearman chose not to abandon a move that was always going to be knife-edge.
It’s not the first time Sainz has been at the center of a stewarding flashpoint this year. He was hit with a contentious sanction at Zandvoort after contact with Liam Lawson, but escaped without penalty this time. The contrast only adds fuel to a debate that refuses to settle: what constitutes sufficient overlap, and when does the onus shift from the attacker to the defender to cede space?
Strip away the discourse and the broader picture for Williams is stark. On one side of the garage, a confident Albon is nudging the FW47 into places it didn’t quite belong last year, finding points on circuits that punish drag and demand commitment. On the other, Sainz is stuck in a loop of near-misses and scrapes, the kind that can erode confidence about as fast as Monza eats braking zones.
None of that means the Bearman call was clear-cut. The second chicane is a magnet for exactly this sort of clash — heavy stop, awkward angle, plenty of optimism. Bearman had done the hard yards to be there; Sainz had the right to turn in. Somewhere between those two truths lies a grey area the stewards shepherd every weekend, and on Sunday they came down on the rookie.
But when your teammate is hauling points and headlines, grey areas start to look awfully black and white. Williams walk away from their home away from home with a tidy score from Albon and more frustration on the other side. Sainz will argue the margins fell the wrong way. Rosberg would argue he’s the one making them smaller.
Either way, the scoreboard doesn’t blink. Albon up to seventh in the championship. Sainz still searching for a reset. And Bearman? A lesson delivered the hard way at 320 km/h: in the Monza pinball machine, you don’t always get what you feel you deserve.
