Sainz hits out: Williams far too slow even without excess weight

– Carlos Sainz gave Williams a remarkably frank assessment ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix. Although the traditional team continues to struggle with an overweight car, from the Spaniard’s point of view, the real problem lies much deeper.

Since the start of the season, Williams has been working to remove several kilograms from the FW48. Lighter components are to be gradually introduced to bring the vehicle closer to the prescribed minimum weight. Progress has already been made, but the problem has not yet been completely solved.

“We are at a similar level to Canada,” explains Sainz. Although some steps have been taken since the season opener in Australia, further kilograms still need to follow. The four-time Grand Prix winner generally views Williams’ consistent work on the issue positively, despite the difficult starting position.

“That’s encouraging,” says Sainz. At the same time, he makes no secret of the fact that the development is not progressing fast enough for him. “It will probably take a little longer than I would like until the weight is reduced to zero.”

Budget Cap complicates the catch-up race

However, it is clear to Sainz that the situation in the budget cap era is more complex than before. Every development measure costs money, which is why Williams has to carefully weigh up which parts are produced first. The team has to decide which updates not only save weight but also deliver additional performance at the same time.

“You have to set the priorities in the right order,” explains the Spaniard. That’s why he tries to look at the situation pragmatically. “I have to be patient.” While the engineers are working on the technical catch-up, he is concentrating on his own performance.

“My performance has been pretty good this year.” But although the overweight issue has been one of the dominant topics at Williams for months, Sainz by no means sees it as the main cause of the disappointing results.

“The car is fundamentally not good enough”

When asked whether Williams was losing valuable development resources due to the weight problem and therefore could never exploit the car’s full potential, Sainz delivered perhaps the most remarkable statement of the entire media discussion.

“We acknowledge that this car is fundamentally not good enough – even without the weight problem.” With this, the Spaniard makes it clear that the difficulties go far beyond a few extra kilograms. “As a team, we have to accept that we have underdelivered not only on weight.”

Sainz hits out: Williams far too slow even without excess weight

The pure performance of the car also does not meet expectations. “We have also not delivered on the car’s performance.” Williams is therefore forced to simultaneously invest money in weight reduction and in classic performance upgrades.

For Sainz, the analysis is clear: “If I’m to speak very openly: We have underdelivered in many, many areas this year.”

The big shock of 2026

What weighs particularly heavily for the Spaniard is the fact that the problems came completely unexpectedly. After a strong 2025 season, Williams had hoped to continue the positive trend. Instead, the team experienced a dramatic drop in performance.

“We experienced a pretty big setback at the beginning of the year,” says Sainz. The numbers illustrate the extent. While Williams was still regularly fighting for podium finishes at the end of 2025, the team was sometimes two and a half seconds per lap behind the leaders at the start of this season.

“When you suddenly go from podium finishes to a deficit of two and a half seconds, that’s a real test of your faith.” Sainz openly admits that the situation shook him. “It was a big shock to the system.”

Internally, too, no one had expected such a drastic setback. “I was the first to tell James and the management that this was not expected.”

Why Sainz has regained his faith

Despite the harsh words, the Spaniard has now regained his faith in the Williams project. According to him, the decisive factor was the team’s reaction to the crisis. After the disappointing first races, Williams, according to Sainz, analyzed in great detail how this setback could have occurred.

“We had very open and clear discussions about where things went wrong.” A comprehensive investigation was carried out together with key decision-makers. Once the causes had been identified, his perspective changed.

“Very quickly, it became clear to me that this setback might even have helped the team.” Sainz goes even further: in his assessment, Williams might never have recognized crucial weaknesses within the organization without the crisis.

“If we hadn’t experienced this setback, we might never have changed some things in the team.” The sheer force of the problem forced management to act. “James and his team took very strong measures.”

The goal was to permanently remove the identified problems from the processes and ensure that similar mistakes do not recur in the future. This consistency gave him new confidence. “That brought back a large part of my faith and my trust in the project.”

Williams between over- and underperformance

Interestingly, Sainz sees both the strong 2025 season and the weak 2026 season as extremes. In his assessment, Williams had sometimes even overperformed beyond their own capabilities last year. “I think we overperformed in 2025.”

Although the FW47 was a good car, the regular podium battles surprised even him. “I didn’t expect us to fight directly against Mercedes and Ferrari.” The strong results might also have raised his expectations for the new season.

Then came the cold shower. “2026 came, and suddenly it was almost the complete opposite.” Despite all the difficulties, Sainz is already looking ahead. He places particularly high hopes on the FW50 for the upcoming season.