Carlos Sainz makes confession about Williams F1 recovery timeline

Carlos Sainz has stressed that patience will be needed amid Williams’ recovery bid during the 2026 Formula 1 season.

A troubled winter has left Williams massively on the back foot and behind on development compared to its F1 rivals, resulting in the British squad slipping down the competitive order at the start of 2026.

Williams finally made progress addressing its overweight FW48 car with an upgrade at the Miami Grand Prix that was two months late.

The Grove-based outfit secured its first double points finish of the campaign in Miami as Sainz led home team-mate Alex Albon in ninth, but the Spaniard insisted more work needs to be done for Williams to move forward.

"We know we still have a lot of weight to shed off the car, so when you look at that then it’s a positive,” Sainz said.

"The team has done a great effort over the last few weeks to bring this and it shows that when you do things right, things start to come away a bit better.

"But to Alpine there's still a big gap and to the frontrunners, I cannot even tell you. So we need to put our heads down and from here make this the new baseline and start improving.”

And Sainz warned that it will take “some months” before Williams completes its recovery turnaround.

"It's going to take some months to finish the turnaround," he explained.  "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.

"The weight of the car came a bit 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 the positives and make sure we keep focusing on [improving] the negatives.”

After the opening four races of 2026, Williams sits eighth in the constructors’ championship on five points.

Williams is nine points behind seventh-placed Racing Bulls and just three clear of Audi in ninth.