A step back
After the two podiums conquered last year in Baku and Qatar in his first season as a Williams driver, Carlos Sainz probably expected this 2026 season – also thanks to the regulatory revolution that the Circus faced – a further step forward from the English team. Instead, the exact opposite happened: from being the fifth force on the grid, the historic Grove team plummeted to the back. Sainz collected just six points in the first 10 GPs of the year and the team is currently eighth in the constructors’ standings.
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Sainz, at the press conference presenting the Hungarian GP, was asked for an assessment on what his and the team’s season has been like so far, and the Spaniard did not hide a certain disappointment.
“In 2025 we exceeded expectations and the results were better than I expected when I signed my contract with Williams in 2024 – commented Sainz – the 2025 car was an excellent car, a car that sometimes was only 3-4 tenths from pole position and in which I felt the balance was good. That’s why, on the eve of 2026, I expected to further develop the 2025 car, with this new regulation that could potentially keep us where we were or lead us to take another step forward. Instead the facts have shown that the exact opposite happened and as a team we are further from the top than we thought we were at the end of 2025, so this has certainly been a year that has definitely served to strengthen the character of the whole team a bit.”.
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“Revealing year”, Sainz thinking of leaving?
“This has also been a revealing year regarding all the work that needs to be done if we want to consider the possibility of fighting with the top teams in the future – Sainz added, with a phrase that could also be read in terms of the market – so there are many things we have understood and realized. Unfortunately, it has been a negative season so far: we must conclude it by understanding why this happened and I believe that right now we have a good understanding of what concerns the ability to make a turnaround. Obviously in F1 there is a need for time, there is a need for commitment, there is a need for a lot of money and a long in-depth analysis and that is exactly the situation we are in now“.
The words spoken by #55 must be weighed carefully, and knowing that his contract is expiring, his comments could also be read as a warning to the team led by James Vowles: the impression is that seeing Sainz dressed in white and blue in 2027 is not at all a given.
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