Carlos Sainz left the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP frustrated after a decent race unravelled through contact with Oscar Piastri, a penalty and a late Williams pit stop he felt was unnecessary.
The Williams driver started on the soft tyre, one of only six drivers to choose that compound for the start at the Hungaroring. While Lando Norris went on to claim his first victory of the season for McLaren, Sainz finished 18th after receiving a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Piastri.
Speaking in the print media after the race, Sainz said his afternoon had been developing well before the incident with the McLaren driver. He had been battling against Fernando Alonso, who ultimately finished 14th.
“Yeah, I had a really good race up until that contact with Oscar [Piastri].
“Managing to keep up with the Haas, managing to actually undercut one Haas and we were racing the two Haas when yesterday they were half a second quicker which honestly at one point I was like we were actually having a really good day.
“Unfortunately, I had contact with Oscar, then the five-second penalty and then an unnecessary pit stop at the end when we were ahead of [Ollie] Bearman and Alex [Albon] just to slot in behind them and finish P18 which is a bit unnecessary, but I need to understand why we made that call because it’s a bit strange.
“But yeah, we were having a good race up until that point and then from then my race we were still ahead of Bearman even with the five-second and having a good race pace but still very far off where we want to be.”
Soft tyre start gives Sainz early route forward
Williams put Sainz on the soft tyre for the start of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, giving him a different opening phase from most of the field. While the majority started on mediums, only Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Gabriel Bortoleto, Sainz, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll chose the soft compound.
That choice initially gave Sainz a way into the race. After a difficult Saturday, he managed to stay with the Haas cars and even undercut one of them during the pit cycle. For a Williams that had struggled to match Haas’ pace in qualifying, that made the first part of the race more encouraging than the final result suggested.
However, the key moment came on Lap 38. Piastri had stopped for hard tyres and was clearing traffic when he came across Sainz. The pair made contact out of Turn 2, and while both continued, the incident cost Piastri enough time for Norris to rejoin ahead after his own stop.
The Stewards later handed Sainz a five-second penalty for causing the collision, which effectively ended his hopes of turning the early strategy into a stronger result.
Late call adds to Sainz’s frustration in F1 Hungarian GP
Even after the penalty, Sainz felt his race still had some value. He believed he remained ahead of Ollie Bearman once the five seconds were applied, while Alex Albon also sat within the same lower-midfield fight.
That made Williams’ late pit call harder for him to understand. Instead of protecting track position, the stop dropped him back into the pack and left him 18th at the flag, behind Albon and ahead of Bearman in the final classification.
For Sainz, the frustration came from the contrast between the first half of the race and the final outcome. Williams had taken a strategic risk, found enough pace to race Haas, and looked set for a more competitive afternoon. Contact, a penalty and the final stop then turned that into another race outside the points.
Sainz points to McLaren as proof of in-season development in 2026
Sainz also looked beyond his own race when asked about McLaren’s performance. Norris won the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, while Piastri ran strongly before retiring with a suspected gearbox issue late in the race.
For Sainz, McLaren’s progress showed that teams can still make meaningful performance gains during a season.
“Yeah, good job.
“Congrats. It’s another thing that proves that you can develop your car in the season and bring performance to your car and go from being 6, 8 tenths off where you want to be to putting yourself where you want to be.
“So there’s plenty of examples out there for us this year that demonstrates that if you understand and do things well you can actually do some big steps.
“There’s a big car out there for us. I just hope that we understand soon and find a way around it.”
That message reflected the wider concern behind Sainz’s frustration. His Hungarian GP showed flashes of competitive race pace, but Williams still finished outside the points and remains far from where he believes it should be.
For Sainz, the lesson from the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP was not only about one penalty or one pit call. It was about the need for Williams to understand its car quickly enough to turn promising moments into sustained progress.
