Carlos Sainz has explained how Williams has become trapped in a “perfect storm” in its poor 2026 season thus far.
After 12 rounds, the team finds itself ninth in the constructors’ standings on just 11 points, a fall of four places and 48 points to the same point in 2025, with the FW48 machine struggling for performance for Sainz and Alex Albon.
The car was initially late to testing and missed the Barcelona shakedown before it proved to be overweight, with the team embarking on a programme to shift the excess and get as close as possible to the 768kg dry limit.
Although upgrades have worked as intended, they have not delivered the expected boost, with the team awaiting a huge package, set to be delivered in Azerbaijan.
Sainz, who recently signed a new contract to commit his future to the team, has spoken why he made the decision to stay at Grove, and how his expectations were risen by his strong 2025 season, where he claimed the team’s first two podiums in a normal race since Lance Stroll at the 2017 Azerbaijan GP.
“I believe in the project, and I said that from the beginning,” Sainz told media, including RacingNews365.
“This was a massive blow to my expectations, especially after how well we did last year, and it didn’t help that it exceeded my expectations and probably lifted my expectations for this year.
“The reality is that this year has turned out to be a perfect storm of all the problems possible, and we’ve come up with a car that is late, is overweight, and a car without downforce, which in Formula 1 is everything you don’t want to achieve in a car.
“We got the principles wrong, and as a team, I want to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, but at the same time, I’m not going to leave – the driver is a fundamental part of showing commitment to all the workers, all the 1000 people behind the scenes, and I didn’t want to leave anyone hanging and commit to the project.”