Williams driver Carlos Sainz managed to score his first points finish since May at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP. The Grove-based team brought an upgraded package to Baku, meant to reduce the FW48’s excess weight.
The upgrades appeared to work during Qualifying, with Sainz achieving Williams’ first Q3 appearance for the 2026 F1 season. However, the Spaniard received a five-place grid penalty for failing to slow under yellow flags during Q3.
Given the chaotic race at Baku, which saw seven drivers DNF, the Spaniard managed to finish P10, scoring Williams’ first points since the F1 Monaco GP.
Sainz spoke about his points finish in the print media following the F1 Azerbaijan GP.
Carlos Sainz: “Happy to bring back a point after yesterday’s disappointment”
It seemed like a points finish would be difficult to achieve for Sainz following his grid penalty at the F1 Azerbaijan GP. Despite qualifying P9, he was forced to start the race from P14 behind teammate Alex Albon.
The Spaniard drove a clean race and managed to score his first points finish since the F1 Canadian GP. Sainz reflected on his race, acknowledging the team’s effort with the upgrade package.
“Obviously happy to bring back a point after yesterday’s disappointment. It’s been a difficult race, but never giving up. I did the most out of the last stint [and I am happy] to bring home a point for the team. Which I think is what we deserve from all the effort we’ve done all weekend. Bringing the package and also with some good driving, so happy to bring the point.”
Sainz continued, expressing that Williams has work to do in terms of improving the FW48’s race pace. On the mediums, he was down in P18 and never looked like making progress as the Audis got ahead of him. Alex Albon was doing a bit better on the soft tyre, although it became clear quite quickly that was the better race tyre.
The 32-year-old boxed earlier than most to softs before the Safety Car. As the Alpines and McLarens fell away, Sainz also got the Audis, Lawson (who was spun by Lindblad), and Pérez.
“Today, I had a difficult race in terms of pace — the pace I had on Friday and yesterday was not in the car today and we probably need to analyse why. But even with less pace, we managed to do a very good restart at the Safety Car and pass a couple of cars through just being a bit smart, and managed to get a point out of it. But the pace today there’s something there to analyse because I was not very happy on race.”
Sainz on Colapinto incident during 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP: “This year it’s especially easy to make those mistakes”
There was utter chaos during the first Safety Car restart in Baku. Alpine driver Franco Colapinto locked up into Turn 1, hitting teammate Pierre Gasly who, in turn, collided with Lando Norris. All three drivers were eliminated from points-scoring positions.
While Norris spoke about his displeasure with Colapinto’s mistake, Sainz expressed that there are many factors to consider when analysing the incident.
“I think it’s extremely easy to get it wrong with these cars, with their approaching speeds, with how dirty it is off-line here in Baku, with how cold, ice-cold the tyres are. I felt like the tyres over the weekend have been extremely difficult to manage. We don’t have any soft enough compounds with these kind of tracks and all the power we have. So, not that I want to excuse Franco [Colapinto] at all because anyone can do a mistake like that, but this year it’s especially easy to make those mistakes.”
