Carlos Sainz and Williams are having a rough start to the 2026 Formula 1 season, and the tough times continued in Austria where the Spaniard was forced to admit “we don’t have reliability, we don’t have pace, we don’t have a car capable of scoring points”.
Williams has made no secret of its struggles this year as it battles with a car that is overweight and uncompetitive. It has so far scored just 11 points and sits eighth in the team standings, with Sainz 14th on six points in the drivers’ championship.
In Austria, the struggles continued as both Sainz and team-mate Alex Albon were knocked out in Q1 in qualifying for the race at the Red Bull Ring. However, the team identified several issues after the session, and Sainz had a positive outlook ahead of the race.
“We discovered a couple of things yesterday evening and before qualifying that weren’t working quite right,” he told Spanish broadcaster DAZN.
“We managed to fix them and, honestly, today I was at least having a good race. I was fighting cars I didn’t expect to be fighting – the Audis, the Alpines, the Haases – and I was able to hold them off. So that’s the positive I take away: the pace.”
However, Sainz’s enthusiasm was cut short by an electrical issue that ended his race and brought out the virtual safety car after he ground to a halt on the pitstraight. It was then that the extent of the “positives” from the weekend hit home.
An electrical issue took Carlos Sainz out of the Austrian GP
Photo by: Eric Le Galliot
“Let’s not kid ourselves, positive only within the context of the level of performance we have right now, which is very poor,” Sainz continued.
“It’s positive because this weekend I wasn’t comfortable with the car, and then I changed a couple of things before qualifying and a few more before the race, and that got me back to where I was in Barcelona and in the previous races, where I felt comfortable – at least with the limited performance we have.
“So, I’m at least reassured by that. But hopefully this will be the last of these really bad weekends where everything has gone wrong. Because in the end we don’t have reliability, we don’t have pace, we don’t have a car capable of scoring points, so we’ll have to wait and see if things improve at Silverstone.”
The hope on the horizon for Sainz takes the form of a suite of upgrades that Wiliams is preparing to roll out. The Grove team has been cautious with its programme of new parts, as it aims to tackle its weight and performance issues in one go, rather than burning through its budget cap with minor changes.
The first new parts will arrive at Williams’ home race at Silverstone next weekend, where Sainz’s team-mate Albon believes the FW48 could make a move up the order.
“It’s not going to get us to the midfield, but it will get us maybe closer to the Haas,” Albon told reporters including Motorsport.com. “I think that’s maybe a sensible first step this year to get a little bit closer to the midfield cars. We got lapped by the RBs today, so… We’re quite a far way away.”
Additional reporting by Stuart Codling
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