Williams’ 2026 F1 plight “an eye-opener” after it “overachieved” in 2025

Carlos Sainz says Williams’ struggles in the 2026 Formula 1 season have been “an eye-opener”, particularly after it “overachieved” in 2025.

Williams enjoyed its most successful season in years in 2025, finishing fifth in the constructors’ standings and grabbing a handful of podiums.

Expectations were for Williams to maintain its position at the head of the midfield, but it was beset by problems from the off.

Development delays meant Williams missed the Barcelona shakedown, while the car has been overweight.

After 11 races, Williams has just 11 points, with Alex Albon a best of eighth in Monaco.

Team-mate Carlos Sainz has scored six points to Albon’s five this year, but admits 2026 has been “character building”.

“No, it wasn’t in my plans or in my expectations,” he said when asked if he anticipated such a struggle.

“I think I’ve been very open and very clear about the fact that I think in 2025 we overdelivered and, if anything, the results were better than what I expected when I signed my Williams contract in 2024.

“The 2025 car was a very good car, a car that was sometimes only three or four tenths off pole position, a car where you could feel that the balance was good.

“Obviously, going into 2026, I expected, if anything, with more time to develop the 2026 car and a new set of regulations, that we could potentially either stay where we were or make a small step forward.

“Yet time has proven to me that it has obviously been the opposite, or the other way around, and that as a team we are further away from the top than we thought we were at the end of 2025.

“It’s definitely been a character-building year for the whole team, a bit of an eye-opener in terms of how much work there is still to do if we even want to consider fighting with a top team in the future.

“A lot of things have been learned, a lot of things we’ve realised, and unfortunately it has been a bad year so far.

“We need to conclude and understand why and what happened.

“I think we have a pretty good understanding by now.

“The capacity to turn it around is there, but obviously in Formula 1 it takes time. It takes time, effort, budget-cap money and a lot of analysis, and that’s exactly where we are right now.”