{"id":716653,"date":"2026-06-05T11:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/716653\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:10:12","slug":"carlos-sainz-issues-defiant-williams-f1-message-despite-2026-test-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/716653\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Sainz issues defiant Williams F1 message despite 2026 ‘test of faith’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Sainz has iterated his confidence in the Williams\u2019 long-term Formula 1<\/a> project, despite admitting to a \u2018test of faith\u2019 after the team\u2019s 2026 chassis issues.<\/p>\n

The Grove-based squad<\/a> has been severely tested after its FW48 was produced with a chassis heavier than that of its rivals, curtailing pre-season hope of building on its impressive 2025 showing.<\/p>\n

Sainz was, of course, taking a gamble by joining the team upon his departure from Ferrari, one that was vindicated with the car scoring two podiums via his hand in Baku and Qatar, as well as another top-three finish in the US Grand Prix Sprint.<\/p>\n

But there is no doubt that the four-time Grand Prix-winner will have been left frustrated by the team\u2019s tough start to the 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n

Ahead of this weekend\u2019s Monaco GP, Sainz was asked if his faith was tested by the situation that has presented itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cTested my faith?\u00a0For sure,\u201d he admitted to media, including Motorsport Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go from scoring podiums at the end of last year to suddenly being where we were two seconds and a half of the pace at the beginning of the year, two seconds is a big test of faith or a big shock to the system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the first one to say to James [Vowles, Team Principal] and to the management that it was not expected. but at the same time we had very open and clear conversations of where things started going wrongly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we did a very thorough analysis with some very important members of the team and I think once we all understood where it had started to go wrong and how I very quickly realised that it might have actually done good things for the team this bump. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we wouldn\u2019t have hit this bump I think there might have been things in the team that we would have never changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the shock of that bump we definitely put a very strong action to correct them, to erase them from the system, to for sure try and not happen again. That made me recover a lot, that faith and the belief in the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe FW48 has proven to be a more challenging car than its 2025 predecessor<\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz confesses that 2026 is \u2018the opposite\u2019 of 2025 early-season expectations<\/p>\n

Sainz\u2019s nous with development helped the FW47 haul itself to a position of being capable of securing fifth place in the Constructors\u2019 Championship.<\/p>\n

It left the Williams team hopeful of it being a foundation on which to build amid F1\u2019s new regulations cycle, but so far, to no avail.<\/p>\n

Asked if he knew this was a possibility, knowing the team is still in a transitional period, Sainz confessed 2025 exceeded all expectations, with this season so far being a polar opposite.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe last year was almost too good for where the team was at?\u00a0A combination.I think last year we over-delivered as a team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that FW47 was a good race car with its strengths and weaknesses, but we definitely managed to create a car that was able to score podiums, [and] my first year with the team, that was not expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not expecting that \u2013\u00a0I was expecting to maybe be a solid midfield car, but not to at races be fighting with Mercedes and Ferrari head-to-head, straight outright pace. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat probably maybe also raised my expectations for 2026.\u00a0Then 2026 came and it was almost the opposite.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a bit of a rollercoaster, let\u2019s say this start of my life in Williams. I don\u2019t know, I think I was always expecting to hit a bump at some point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the road to recovery of a team is never a straight line and if not, the best example with McLaren at the beginning of 2023, they were really far down and they ended the year in a high.\u00a0From there came the big progress<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I always expected maybe not as big of a bump as we hit at the beginning. but at the same time, I think it\u2019s propelled some very interesting changes inside the team and some very interesting changes of mentality, changes of approach that were needed that maybe without the bump we would have never changed and we would have never corrected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams has evidently shown much improvement since that time, giving the team something to build on with a number of races still to run until the summer break.<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Carlos Sainz bemoans disregard of F1 drivers\u2019 crucial Monaco GP suggestion
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Sainz has iterated his confidence in the Williams\u2019 long-term Formula 1 project, despite admitting to a \u2018test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,3020,578,576,577,82,1196],"class_list":["post-716653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}