Carlos Sainz returns to Formula 1 for his second season with Williams F1 Team for the 2026 season. He stepped into the partnership with many unknowns in the equation; however, his vision was laser-focused on one thing: helping Williams achieve the success they are destined for. Along with his extensive knowledge in front and behind the wheel, Sainz, alongside his teammate Alex Albon, led the Grove-based team to the kind of victory they could only dream of.
The driver conquered his first season with three podiums — including a Sprint podium in Austin — and P5 for the team in the 2025 Constructors’ standings.
Sainz on a partially familiar return with Williams for the 2026 F1 season
During an interview released by Williams, Sainz remarked that things would feel a lot “better” and “more streamlined” when it came to working with the core members of his crew ahead of the 2026 F1 season, as the Spaniard wasn’t stepping into a foreign environment when it came to familiarising himself with his new unit.
“Well, in many ways, a second season with the team will feel very different because I’ve met all the people that I had to meet,” Sainz began. “Obviously, there still are a lot of new faces coming in into the team over the last few months, but I will know mainly all the core people of my team, which will make things a lot better, a lot more streamlined to work with. At the same time, everything will be completely new all over again.“
Sainz carried high expectations for Williams from the start
While Sainz enjoys the familiarity and comfort, it isn’t entirely the case. A well-known sentiment about the Williams driver is his hunger to help the team to whatever degree he can, and there’s no doubt that the driver’s knowledge regarding the ins and outs of an F1 car is what made things easier for the team.
But his shared moments with the FW47 were short-lived as he reflected on what it means to start over from scratch ahead of the 2026 F1 regulations.
“Everything will be completely new all over again. It’s a completely new car, a completely new set of regulations, so all the experience that I gathered with the FW47 and how to drive it, how to be as fast as I could be at the end of the season with it, now it’s all down to zero. We have to gain all that experience and knowledge all over again.”
Sainz scored his first podium of 2025 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and then again at the Qatar Grand Prix. He finished third in both. Meanwhile, his efforts to secure a Sprint podium in Austin also helped Williams to P5 in the Constructors’ standings.
Looking back at the start of the 2025 season, Sainz remained pragmatic in the expectations he held before starting off a new chapter.
“My expectations were always high going into this project with Williams,” the driver remarked.
“If at the beginning of the year you would have told me we would have scored a couple of podiums, one sprint podium, but especially P5 in the Constructors Championship, drivers in the top ten of the drivers, I think that would have been a really good year. I think we had a very solid first year together and now we need to build from it.”
The hopes of having more time with the FW47
After a quick journey into the past, Sainz looked ahead into F1’s newest chapter with the highly anticipated 2026 regulations. On the one hand, the driver shared that he’s more than happy to have a level playing field where every team creates from scratch — an open opportunity for Williams to “maximize” this window of opportunity, while leaving the door wide open for spontaneous surprises.
However, the Spaniard yearned for more time with the FW47, where he could have further assisted the team in the development of the car. He shared that he would’ve enjoyed a few more years with the standard regulations, so he could continuously deliver bits and pieces of his understanding regarding those regulations to his team. Sainz once again reinstated the fact that he has high hopes for his collaboration with the team.
While Williams appeared unstable on the outside before 2025, Sainz saw an opportunity to continue persisting in the good that he had accumulated with the team over the past year, sharing that he “trusted” the trajectory they were on in 2025.
On objectives and relationship with Albon for the 2026 F1 season
When talking about personal and team goals, Sainz shared that it was hard to share any sort of expectations due to the magnitude of the unknown territory they were venturing into. He called it one of the biggest regulation changes since 2014 — if not bigger and described the necessity to set objectives as an “impossible task.”
When it comes to setting a common goal, the Spaniard shared a simple philosophy: aiming for a continued and steady progression in the most obvious places the team still lacks. The driver will have his eyes set on ensuring that they overcome the hurdles that prevented them from being stronger in 2025.
The driver also reflected on his newfound partnership and camaraderie with teammate Alex Albon, calling it a “solid relationship” from the start. Sainz detailed the hard work both drivers put in over the winter break to prepare for the new season and implied there’s a wholesome alliance between the two that’s just the right amount of competitive.
One of the most important aspects that makes their partnership so dynamic and exciting is the shared knowledge between the two. Sainz believes that both of them are valuable when it comes to helping each other with their strengths and weaknesses in creating a more cohesive and consistent performance.
Overall, the driver spoke highly of his stalemate.
“I think we can help Williams quite a bit this year, especially because I think experience is going to be quite important going into a new set of regulations.”
