Carlos Sainz’s move to Williams F1 has been one of the standout narratives of the season, with his pairing alongside Alex Albon drawing plenty of attention. Although Albon has often had the edge on track, Sainz is gradually finding his footing at Grove. Now, at the halfway stage of the campaign, the Spaniard has offered frank reflections on his time with the team and their plans to raise the bar in the months ahead.
The partnership between Sainz and Albon has proven remarkably harmonious, unlike the tensions that occasionally surfaced during his Ferrari tenure alongside Charles Leclerc.
Where previous seasons saw strategic disagreements and occasional flashpoints, most notably the infamous Las Vegas incident, where miscommunication led to Leclerc’s heated radio outbursts, the Williams garage has maintained a refreshingly unified atmosphere.
At Williams, however, calm heads have prevailed. Sainz himself admitted that Williams is pushing in one unified direction. This has strengthened collaboration with Albon and aligned both drivers on the areas the FW47 needs to improve.
“Yeah, it’s been a very strong start to our time together in terms of the way we want to develop the team, the car, the interaction with Alex, with James,” Sainz revealed in a post-race interview at the F1 Hungarian GP.
“I think we are honestly all very aligned and very optimistic moving forward.”
This alignment has proven crucial for Williams, particularly given their resource constraints compared to Ferrari. Unlike the Maranello outfit, which could accommodate differing driver preferences through sophisticated development programmes, Williams requires both drivers pulling in the same direction.
Sainz admits Williams are stuck in the middle of a year where they cannot develop their F1 car
Sainz’s season has delivered mixed results, with flashes of brilliance punctuated by challenging weekends. At Miami, despite an early collision that damaged his front wing and compromised his tyre strategy, he salvaged ninth place and valuable points.
The Hungarian GP exemplified Williams’ current struggles, with Sainz managing only 14th after a promising qualifying performance that saw him narrowly miss Q3 by mere hundredths.
“The problem is we are stuck in the middle of a year where we cannot actually develop a car that has clear weaknesses, some very good strengths, but also some very good weaknesses,” Sainz explained.
“So it’s not like we can exploit the feedback of the two drivers and the intentions that we have to develop this car, what we need, because we are not putting it in the wind tunnel to develop.”
Williams, like most teams, is in survival mode, carefully managing resources while planning for the 2026 regulation changes. That long-term vision will be critical, especially with the regulation overhaul looming in 2026. The Grove team have openly prioritised saving resources for the new era, meaning this year is about maximising execution rather than chasing upgrades.
Sainz speaks on where he needs to improve for the second half of the season
When asked about what needs to improve in the short term, Sainz was blunt.
“From my side, on the shorter term, I’ll just focus on weekend executions,” Sainz outlined his philosophy.
“There’s nothing really we can do to the aero or to the set-up of the car. In the end, I tried three or four different set-ups over the weekend to try and find an extra around tracks like this.”
The Spaniard’s weekend in Hungary demonstrated this methodical approach. Despite finishing outside the points, he praised the team’s clean execution whilst acknowledging circuit-specific limitations.
His optimism stems from understanding that similar operational precision at more favourable venues could yield substantial rewards.
“Second half of the season, probably, I will just seek consistency with set-up, consistency with the car, and just make sure we execute clean weekends,” Sainz concluded.
“If we would have had a clean weekend like this in Spa, Miami, Imola, we would have got a lot of points. So, that’s why we need to improve in the second half of the season to have the clean weekends when the car is up there.”
Williams must back the FW47’s competitive tracks with flawless weekends. The team currently stands fifth and is on for their best finish in this regulation. If the partnership remains as harmonious as it has been so far, and Williams can keep the errors in check, then the second half of the season could give a truer measure of how Sainz and Albon will shape the Grove team’s next chapter.
