Unexpected crisis
Williams‘ winter was anything but simple. Despite the excellent second half of 2025 and the high expectations placed on the regulatory revolution, the Grove team had to skip the Barcelona shakedowns entirely as they were not ready in time with the new car. An embarrassing situation only partially mitigated by the reliability shown during the six days of testing in Bahrain. The difficulties of the British team were admitted on Melbourne Thursday without much hesitation even by Carlos Sainz, who however appeared confident about the team’s chances of recovery.
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“The fact that this has not been the easiest of winters for us is evident – the Spaniard admitted – we have had difficult moments, but the whole season is still ahead of us. Everyone is motivated to recover. Melbourne then often provides surprises and we will try to capitalize. We will try the new rules on a track that is perhaps one of the most difficult to test them on, given how ‘hungry’ for energy it is. We will have a very different situation compared to Bahrain. As far as we are concerned, the top teams are very fast and the entire midfield has slipped further back: we will have to see how we can recover. What went wrong? This is exactly what we are evaluating and trying to understand internally – Sainz concluded, speaking to the official F1 channel – after betting everything on 2026, we found ourselves in trouble. We need to analyze and understand, but this year the growth potential will matter more than where we start. I want to lead the team to react as quickly as possible“.
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Sainz’s prediction
Speaking on the podcast Beyond The Grid, Sainz did not shy away from a prediction on who will be the world champion of this highly anticipated and unpredictable 2026 season: “I’ll say two names: George Russell or Max Verstappen“, the Spaniard declared.
