{"id":839662,"date":"2026-08-02T11:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T11:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/839662\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T11:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T11:07:09","slug":"carlos-sainz-under-martin-brundle-scrutiny-with-f1-career-stalling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/839662\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Sainz under Martin Brundle scrutiny with F1 career ‘stalling’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Sainz<\/a> is \u201cstalling out\u201d at a critical time in his career after Williams<\/a> made an underwhelming start in Formula 1\u2019s new era.<\/p>\n

That is the opinion expressed by Sky F1\u2019s Martin Brundle, who believes that Sainz<\/a> will be \u201ckeeping his options open\u201d over his Williams future. Sainz had asked his management to keep him out of the driver market loop until the summer break, which has now arrived. Brundle understands that Carlos Sainz Sr wanted his son to join Audi over Williams.<\/p>\n

Martin Brundle: Carlos Sainz F1 career \u2018stalling out\u2019<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> for news you can trust<\/p>\n

Sainz and Williams has suffered a setback in the collective timeline to return to the front of the grid.<\/p>\n

The Hungarian Grand Prix was a further blow, with the upgraded Aston Martin AMR26 having seemingly moved ahead of Williams in the pecking order.<\/p>\n

PlanetF1.com revealed<\/a> at the Barcelona Grand Prix that Sainz has identified the Audi F1 team as a potential destination for the F1 2027 season. Williams has continued to struggle for momentum since.<\/p>\n

Sainz had asked his management to keep him out of driver market matters until the summer break, when he will make a decision on his F1 future.<\/p>\n

Working in Williams\u2019 favour is that Sainz has regularly expressed a strong desire and commitment to making this project work.<\/p>\n

More on Carlos Sainz from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Aston Martin rejects Sainz theory after Hungarian Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n

James Vowles points finger at Fernando Alonso over Sainz-Piastri clash<\/a><\/p>\n

Williams boss James Vowles recently pointed to and echoed that sentiment, though admitted that Sainz has the \u201cability\u201d to go to \u201ca number of other locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Brundle, Sainz is down a career \u201ccull-de-sac\u201d at the worst possible time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe really committed to it, didn\u2019t he?\u201d Brundle, the nine-time F1 podium finisher, former driver manager and current Sky F1 commentator, said of Sainz and Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe decided not to go to Audi, which I believe his dad wanted him to. They\u2019ve got a long-standing relationship there with the family with Audi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would imagine Carlos is keeping his options open.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is frustrating. He\u2019s stalling out at a time in his career and life that is not optimal, to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he thinks Sainz deserves more from his F1 career, Brundle confirmed: \u201cHe\u2019s had some brilliant races in a Ferrari.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s ended up down a cul-de-sac here. So hopefully Williams has an answer for \u201927.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sainz, 2025, his first season with Williams, yielded results beyond his expectations. He secured podiums in Baku and Qatar, in a season where Williams had spent much of it focusing on the regulatory reset to come.<\/p>\n

Yet, the team has emerged in F1 2026 behind where it and Sainz had expected.<\/p>\n

Williams sits P9 in the current Constructors\u2019 standings<\/a> with just 11 points on the board. Sainz has contributed six of those, and Alex Albon five.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018Look, we\u2019re going to sacrifice 2025, because of the all new regulations, biggest regulation change in the history of our sport,’\u201d Brundle commented on Williams, \u201cbut then the results haven\u2019t worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what\u2019s quite clear, I think McLaren found this, and other teams found this, maybe what you were learning with the previous four seasons of ground effects cars, things you thought you knew about how to be fast in a Formula 1 car, are not working on these cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suspect Williams have got to the same place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the car was pretty heavy at the beginning of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll in all, they can only be disappointed. When you look at their results in qualifying and in the race, there\u2019s a lot of double digits. They\u2019re always in the teens, and I think that sums up their season so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: Russell tipped to explore Audi move as Steiner makes F1 2028 prediction<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Sainz is \u201cstalling out\u201d at a critical time in his career after Williams made an underwhelming start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,4971,817,813,816,818,22298,44,85,819],"class_list":["post-839662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-martin-brundle","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}