Carlos Sainz concedes startling timeframe for Williams F1 recovery

Carlos Sainz believes it could take "months" for Williams to rediscover the form that saw the team scoring regular points at the back end of the 2025 Formula 1 season. 

Williams has endured a tough start to its 2026 campaign, missing the Barcelona shakedown entirely, and only bringing its planned 'race one package' to the track in Miami. 

Despite the upgrades finally arriving, Williams is still battling with an overweight car, and while both Sainz and Alex Albon were able to score points on Sunday, a lack of performance in qualifying and a poor Sprint race leaves questions to be answered. 

Even after equalling his best result of the year, Sainz was left unsatisfied, conceding: “Yeah, with a lot of safety car laps. So not where we want to be. 

"Still, I expect everyone at home to know that this is still not where we want to be, even if it feels to everyone that it’s a bit of a relief because of getting two cars in the points. 

"Even if it’s on merit, it’s definitely a good step, but we need to keep on pushing because it’s not where we expected to be at the end of last year when we were hoping for 2026, and hopefully the start of a new recovery. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we can get back to where we want to be.”

Other than Aston Martin, every team brought an upgrade to Miami, although the scope of these varied throughout the paddock.

Confirming that further upgrades will arrive for Williams in the short term, Sainz does not expect a silver bullet to suddenly put the team back into regular points contention. 

“It’s going to take some months to finish the turnaround," he added. "I think we’re going to need to get to the last third of the season to see a proper turnaround. But at least the upgrade worked. A bit of the weight came off, but we still know there’s a bit to go. 

"We have a few bits and pieces coming for the next couple of races, so we’re going to keep positive and make sure that we keep focusing on the negatives.”