Carlos Sainz says Williams must step up their performance after a poor start to the 2026 campaign, admitting the team is dealing with multiple problems.
Williams enjoyed its strongest season for some time in 2025 with Sainz collecting two podium finishes in his first year with the team following his arrival from Ferrari.
Having sacrificed car development last season, Williams had been hoping to take a significant step forward under the new rules for F1 2026.
However, the team has been blighted by issues with Williams the only squad failing to appear at the five-day shakedown in Barcelona in January.
Despite claiming that the FW48 car was close to the minimum weight limit at launch, Williams has since acknowledged that the car is currently too heavy.
Williams, comfortably the slowest of the Mercedes-powered cars, have had a troubled start to the new season as a result with Sainz missing the first qualifying session in Australia due to a power unit problem.
Meanwhile, teammate Alex Albon failed to start the Chinese Grand Prix after his car developed a hydraulics issue.
Sainz battled from 17th on the grid to register Williams’ first points of 2026 with ninth place in Shanghai, with the Spaniard finishing a lap behind the race-winning Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli.
Speaking after the race in China, Sainz declared that weight is only one of the problems currently faced by Williams, with a lack of downforce also a “very big part” of the team’s deficit.
He said: “We know we are too slow.
“We are too slow compared to where we wanted to be, compared to where we expected to be.
“Part of that is weight that we know we need to get out of the car. But another part – very big part – of it is downforce that we need to improve.
“We haven’t been the most reliable car. Also, again, Alex today, not starting the race and being missing so many free practices, having so many issues.
“So honestly, we need to level up because we’re having too many issues in too many areas and, as a team, we need to dig deep.
“I hope these two points serves as a bonus motivation for everyone to go back home and dig deep because it’s not where we where we wanted to be and where we said we would be.”
Asked if Williams is treating races like a test session as it aims to catch up on the running it missed over the winter, Sainz revealed that he carried out the entire Australian Grand Prix with damage to his front wing.
The former Ferrari driver is hopeful that his race in China will give the team a clearer indication of what the FW48 is capable of in race conditions.
He said: “I did my whole race in Melbourne with a broken front wing, so I couldn’t assess the balance of the car.
“I think today everything was working as expected and that definitely, hopefully gives the team my first proper take of the car in race conditions of feedback.
“That hopefully will also mean we can focus in improving the setup, improving all the other things that are not performance.
“For the rest, we need to take all the weight off.”
Sainz went on to reveal that he is placing a greater emphasis on race starts this season in an effort to make up for the shortcomings of his car.
The removal of the MGU-H from the engine’s architecture has seen turbo lag re-emerge as an issue at the start of 2026, resulting in more variance off the start line.
He said: “The starts have been good at the start of the season.
“I had a mega start in Melbourne, mega start in the sprint and another great start today, so at least in that department I’m putting a bit of an effort as I know the driver can always make a bit of a difference.
“I’m covering that off at the start of this year.
“And for the rest, honestly, we did everything right and doing everything right in the end brought us a top nine, which, if you asked me before the race, I thought it was very improbable.
“But good defence at the end with Franco (Colapinto) playing around with the blue flags, with the overtake mode and trying to keep him behind on a fresh set of mediums for him and various hards.”
