"Back to the drawing board" - Carlos Sainz issues blunt assessment of "frustrating" Williams

Carlos Sainz gave a blunt assessment of Williams' problems after a "realisation" in Barcelona made him suggest the team needs to "go back to the drawing board".

Seven races into the season, Williams sits eighth in the constructors' standings, with a best race result of eighth place courtesy of Alex Albon in Monaco. 

After hoping to climb the pecking order this term, Williams was the only team to miss the pre-season shakedown in Barcelona, and when it did hit the track, the car was overweight and underdeveloped - the planned race-one package only making its way to the track two months late, in Miami. 

Although the package saw a step in performance, upgrades for rival teams have pushed Williams back down again, with Sainz conceding the Barcelona race was "a bit frustrating at times".

"I think realistically speaking, we expected it to be hard," he said. 

"Looking back at it, I think it was a bit of a shock how far [off] we are in medium and high-speed corners. Partly, it's due to weight, but even more importantly, it's downforce in the car. 

"So I think it was a massive - I don't want to call it a shock, not even a wake-up call, because we knew it, but a realisation that we are really far from where we should be, where we targeted to be. I think it's time to go back to the drawing board and start bringing more things to the car, because clearly, on a medium-speed track, we are very far off."

Without a point in two races and with a personal best result of ninth place - secured three times in China, Miami, and Canada - Sainz was asked if any major upgrades could be expected ahead of the summer shutdown. 

"Yes, I know what is coming, and for sure, what normally comes from this team really tends to work," he said. 

"But at the same time, I'm not sure if it's enough to cut the gap that we have on this sort of track. So I think we need to do more than we are doing already. 

"Every week, for the team, it is super-important to find points of downforce, or kilos of weight, because although I realise that the team is all pushing flat out and we are all pushing with everything we have, we probably need even more. So we need to focus on that."