For his second season at Grove, Carlos Sainz acknowledged that Williams still has several shortcomings in the design of a car capable of fighting at the highest level in Formula 1.
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Despite a very difficult winter for the British team, the Spaniard remains convinced that the team can progress throughout the 2026 season and reach, or even exceed, the level shown in 2025.
Sainz explains that teams already have an initial estimate of their position in the hierarchy, but that the reality will only be truly visible at the time of the first Grand Prix of the season.
A step below
“We are doing the same calculations but with a bit more information, and we have an approximation of our position,” says the Madrid native. “But the reality is that until we have run in Australia with the cars full of fuel and everyone has pushed the engines to their limit, we won’t really know where we stand.”
The Spanish driver also acknowledges that Williams is not yet at the performance level reached the previous season: “Realistically — and I always like to be realistic on this point — we are not where we were last year.”
Reflecting on the difficulties encountered during the winter, Sainz mentioned the cancellation of the private shakedown planned in Barcelona, while highlighting the progress made during the winter testing in Bahrain.
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“The car is very new, it is still immature, and we are going to improve it in all areas. As you have all seen, the winter was very difficult for the team, but that doesn’t mean the first race will set the tone for the whole season.”
Development race
According to him, the objective will be to progress steadily throughout the year thanks to the technical development of the car and the engine.
“It will be a season during which we will develop the car a lot, both the car itself and the engines, and we will see what level we reach at the end of the season. We would like to at least be at the level where we were at the end of last year, or even better.”
Sainz also identified several structural weaknesses that the team still needs to correct to become competitive again.
“This year, we realized that we were still lacking in two or three essential elements when it comes to producing a top-tier Formula 1 car,” he concludes. “We learned from that this winter and we are going to apply it for the future. ”
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