Carlos Sainz believes either George Russell or Max Verstappen will emerge as Drivers’ Champion in the 2026 Formula 1 season.
When put on the spot and asked who will win the championship this season, the Williams driver went with Mercedes’ Russell or the recently-deposed four-time champion as he seeks to regain his crown.
After a tricky first half of the 2025 campaign, Sainz recovered in style to earn two podiums for Williams as the team rose to fifth in the Constructors’ standings come season’s end.
Like many on the grid, Sainz made the switch to Williams in the hope of the 2026 regulation reset providing a platform for further success, though it appears that, after testing, Mercedes and Ferrari hold strong packages heading into the year, while McLaren and Red Bull join them to make an overall front four at this early stage.
Williams started the season on the back foot by not bringing a package to Barcelona shakedown running in January, instead using a week of virtual track test (VTT) operations to get used to a simulated version of the FW48.
The team bounced back in Bahrain by topping the overall lap count over the course of six days, though most of the grid was able to compile significant mileage as the 2026 season approaches.
With intrigue surrounding the destination of the title in a year where the pecking order could reset, Sainz was asked on the Beyond the Grid podcast who may win the championship.
“I’ll say two names, okay? George Russell or Max Verstappen,” he said.
But, when host, Tom Clarkson, asked if he was allowed to ask for further reasoning, a simple: “No, you cannot” was the response, followed by a laugh.
Though, as for how he reached this verdict, he added: “From what I’ve seen in Bahrain in three days of testing.”
That would put his team out of the frontrunning picture, then, but knowing that he moved to Williams for a journey back to the front of the field, Sainz is hoping to build on what was the Grove-based team’s best campaign in almost a decade in 2025.
Asked what would represent a good season for Williams, Sainz replied: “Progress. Keep showing progress.
“Doesn’t matter which area, we need to progress in every area.
“I’m not going to look too much at the results, because if there’s a year that is difficult for results and to judge where everyone is, it’s going to be this one. But, progress in every area.”
Asked about top-three finishes, he added: “I’m going to try. I hope so.”
Admitting his expectations around 2026 to be ‘TBC’ from his perspective, Sainz moved to Williams on a multi-year deal with the purpose of helping bring the team back to its former glory.
At this time in his career, he called it a “life project”, now a decade into his Formula 1 career and heading through what should be his physical peak.
“I’m 31 years old now, and I feel I can enter now, let’s say, the next few years of my career, with a very clear target in mind, which is try and help this team go back to the front of the field,” he explained.
“If you ask me in three, four years’ time, where I would like to be, I’d say, ideally, fighting for a championship with Williams.
“Being 31, there’s nothing that would make me happier than putting all my effort, using the peak of my career to bring back one of the greatest teams F1 back to the top.
“If we manage to achieve that, I’ll look back being very, very proud for sure.”
