Carlos Sainz had a weekend to forget at the 2026 F1 Australian GP as his Williams car let him down on numerous occasions. He crossed the line in P15 in the end.
He did not take part in qualifying due to an ERS issue. Starting on the back row — although he was basically 19th off the line thanks to Piastri and Hülkenberg DNS’s — the 31-year-old had a magnificent launch, tearing by other cars to be P13 out of turn 1.
Running in P12 at one point, the four-time race winner was hoping to fight Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly for points.
However, a front wing issue was to come when using straight-line mode; it’s a gremlin facing them since testing. It made the car undriveable and any hope of P10 was gone.
Carlos Sainz on his fantastic first lap and race defining problem at the 2026 F1 Australian GP
“Yeah, I had a mega start. I think at one point I was running P12 after a few laps.
“After 20 laps I think I started having an issue with the front wing. It’s an issue we have since testing, that the front wing backs off when you use the SLM, and I lost a lot of aero balance.
“From lap 20 onwards it became more of a test session, to the point where at around lap 45 I did a pit stop to change the front wing, because it was not drivable anymore. But yeah, it kept backing off.
“I had too many issues this weekend. One on top of the other, and in the end, a very bad weekend.”
Sainz reflects on lots of gremlins with his FW48
Through the three practice sessions, the former Ferrari and McLaren star completed only 41 laps. 30 of those came in FP1. His car breaking down after a single lap in FP3 led to him missing qualifying. A lot of valuable running was missed. Frustration was understandable.
At one stage in the Grand Prix he got ahead of Alex Albon by overtaking his teammate on lap 16 for 12th. However, his pace started to drop from lap 23 onwards because of the front wing issue and the Thai got back through six tours later.
Once he boxed on lap 45 for a new front wing, it was a test session. Carlos Sainz managed to pump in a few 1:23s on softs after getting a good balance again, showing very respectable pace in the midfield in the closing laps of the 2026 F1 Australian GP.
“No [going to softs was not planned], it was just for me to try the car with a normal front wing.
“I didn’t do quali yesterday, I didn’t do free practice three, I didn’t do a long run in FP2.
“At one point we were, I think up until lap 20 with the pace I had, and no issues, I think we could have followed Gasly at least, stayed with Gasly in the race, or play around for the last point.
“But then on lap 20, as I said, I lost a lot of aero balance, and I opened up the graining because of that.
“I stayed in the race until lap 45, then we decided to forget about the race and test something, and we tested a different front wing without the back off.
“And yeah, it seemed to all be working fine, and the pace got better again, and the car was normal again.”
No punches pulled on Williams’s 2026 F1 struggles by Carlos Sainz
Williams ran with one car in qualifying: Alex Albon. The reality of their situation was laid bare. He was a full 2s slower than George Russell in Q2 as he only qualified P15.
In the race itself, Albon was lapped once, Sainz twice thanks to his aforementioned issues.
It is a far cry from 2025. The Spaniard scored two brilliant Grand Prix podiums last year, with his teammate bagging P8 in the Drivers’ Championship. Williams comfortably claimed 5th in the standings.
Despite team boss James Vowles saying many times Williams’ focus was on 2026 in previous years, it is turning into a disaster. They missed the shakedown in Barcelona. The car is overweight and slow.
Carlos Sainz did not hide the problems they are facing in the print media pen after the 2026 F1 Australian GP.
“Worse than I expected this season for sure. I expected a lot more from the car and from our potential.
“After Bahrain it’s where I expected to be. In Bahrain we already saw the overweight [car] we have.
“The aero of the car is nothing special. We are not good either with aero.
“In the end weight plus aero means we are going to be… I think we were 2.2 seconds off Mercedes, which in the end has to be our reference. And still obviously behind the midfield. In testing we saw that.
“Now it’s a matter of recovering and putting everything together.
“One, stop having reliability issues. Two, get the weight out of the car. And three, come with an aero concept that is better than what we have right now.”
