Carlos Sainz managed to collect two points so far in the 2026 F1 season, as Williams sits near the back of the constructors’ standings, just ahead of Cadillac and Aston Martin.
Although he is ahead of his teammate Alex Albon, both are also battling the FW48 and facing multiple issues. Sainz finished P15 in Australia and Japan, with a P9 in China, where seven cars did not classify, including the Thai’s.
Williams seem to be struggling with reliability issues, and other factors like an overweight machine. Many other teams have similar problems, but the FW48’s performance is more disappointing, considering Williams’ success last year.
During his first season with the team, Carlos Sainz was able to score three top 3s. He finished P3 at the Azerbaijan GP, the Qatar GP, and in the United States GP Sprint. Overall, Williams gathered 137 points and delivered P5 by the end of the year in the 2025 constructors’ championship.
Sainz: “It’s no secret that it’s been tough”
Before the Japanese GP, Sainz talked about Williams’ hugely disappointing start after last year’s momentum builder.
“For sure it’s been a shock for me, for the team, for James, for Alex, for all the engineers.I think it’s no secret that it’s been tough.
“I could already smell it coming in December, January, and I started bracing for the bump. Because we already started having these conversations of delays, not arriving to that first test, starting hearing the overweight numbers. And I said it doesn’t look very promising to start.
“But for me, like I said from the beginning of the bump, I knew at some point Williams was going to be a bump. Not all the roads to success are linear. There was always going to be a bump.”
Still, the Spaniard remains optimistic about the possibility of growth in 2026 for the team. As the F1 season is on a break, Williams hope to improve their car. While, after several complaints, including from Sainz, the FIA is taking advantage of the pause to review the 2026 regulations.
“This bump is big. Probably even bigger than what I expected. But now it’s about resilience and how you recover from a bump. Because if this bump is going to help to eliminate all the bad things that the team had intrinsic into the way we were doing the production, the way we were doing the design, the way we were delivering overweight chassis or overweight components, If this is going to kill the viruses that we had as a team, and we recover well from this, then it will create the opposite effect: big jump in performance.
“So for me now it’s seeing and analysing and observing the way that we are able to jump back from a bump that was a bit much bigger than what I expected.”
Sainz said that in hindsight Williams understands what went wrong
Carlos Sainz said that, after a few races in the 2026 regulations, the team could see why they ended up in this situation.
“Now yes, now when you do all the analysis that James and his team have done of how we ended up in this situation. Once you analyse, you realise we were not where we were supposed to be, at the level we thought we were as a team.
“It’s clear, now it’s clear. But three or four months ago,when you were in the championship with three podiums consecutively, almost in the last half of the season, the momentum was high. The confidence was high. You almost stop seeing where the flaws of the team are.
“It’s motorsports, it’s sport in general. You go through good moments and you realise you’re still doing things not the way you should do them. And you learn again and you put it together and try to recover.
“It’s this recovery process that is going to be extremely important for the team in the next few months.”
Sainz reflected on the gap between the top teams and the midfield in the 2026 F1 season
The Spaniard was asked if the problems were due to a lack of management skills. On this, Sainz assured that they weren’t and added that Williams was not the only team struggling.
“No, I think not only us. I think every team, that is not the top four teams, this year has realised how far the midfield teams we are from the top teams.”
Sainz considered how the 2026 regulations exposed differences between the top teams and the midfield. Especially how hard it is to bridge the gap.
“You need a regulation change to realise the process of how far you are from a top team organisation and the processes that they have.
“The fact that a top team last year with less wind tunnel hours, with less time, with more development in 2025, was able to produce cars at least one second quicker than any of the midfield cars, for me it just shows you that if you want to do the jump from the midfield to being a top team, the jump is much bigger than anyone could expect.
“Because if you ask me last year at this time of the year, we’re going to have more wind tunnel hours, we’re going to have more time to develop, we’re not going to invest in our 2025 car, we’re just going to prepare for 2026, you’d think we’re going to be close to the top teams. But the reality is that it’s the opposite, you’re more far.
“And this new regulation if anything it has shown all the midfield teams that we have a lot of work to do if we want to match the top teams.”
