Sainz warns Williams not to get too comfortable after Miami GP improvements

Carlos Sainz says Williams cannot lose sight of the lowly expectations it held for itself at the start of the season, despite the team's relief at the progress it made at the Miami GP.

Williams diverted a large proportion of its resources to its 2026 project at an early stage with the hope of making a big step forward from the midfield position it held in 2025 and try to compete closer to the frontrunners. However, a late and overweight car proved uncompetitive in the opening rounds before Miami brought an improvement in fortunes, as Sainz finished ninth and teammate Alex Albon 10th.

"We finally put the upgrade on the car that was supposed to come to Race 1,” Sainz said. “Because of all the delays we had at the beginning of the season, now we finally put the car that was supposed to be the Race 1 package. Now it's on the car, it's performing at least at the level of the midfield cars.

“We know we still have a lot of weight to shed off the car, and when you look at that, it's positive. I think the team has done a great effort over the last few weeks to bring this, and it shows that when you do things right, things start to get a bit better.

"Clearly, (in Miami) we were, I think, sixth-fastest, but then Alpine was about 20 seconds in front of us – [and] it would have been 25-30 without the Safety Car. To Alpine there's still a big gap and to the frontrunners, I cannot even tell you. So we need to put our heads down from here, make this the new baseline and start improving.

“I expect everyone at home to know this is still not where we want to be, even if it feels (like) a bit of a relief, because getting two cars in the points and on merit is definitely a good step. But we need to keep pushing, because it's still not where we expected to be at the end of last year when we were hoping for 2026. Hopefully the start of a new recovery, and hopefully by the end of the year we get where we want to be.”

Sainz said there will be further upgrades soon, but that it will take the majority of this year for Williams to address the issues it is facing with its current car.

“It's going to take some months to finish the turnaround," he said. "I think we're going to need to get to the last third of the season to see a proper turnaround. But at least the upgrade worked. The weight of the car came down a bit, but we still know there's a bit to go.

“We have a few bits and pieces coming for the next couple of races. So we're going to keep the positives and making sure we keep focusing on the negatives.”