Williams started the 2026 Formula 1 season with many difficulties. Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz are frequently stuck in Q1 of the qualifying sessions and, with poor race results, the team occupies the penultimate position in the constructors’ championship, ahead only of Aston Martin and Cadillac.
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Sainz attributes the problems to the car’s weight and production delays: “Honestly, we have a lot of weight to lose, it’s no secret. Would it be a good car [if we reduced the weight]? I think we can do better.” He added: “Beyond the weight, I believe this team has the potential to design and produce a much better car. For the start of the year, we had many production problems that left the car overweight, more than we expected.”
Despite the drop this year, Sainz remembers the 2025 performance, when he stood on the podium twice and finished in the top three in the Texas sprint race. “The reality is that we can all do much better and, as a team, we are not just going to take weight off the car; we need to gain downforce and get a better balance,” he said.
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Sainz concluded: “I hope the team makes a big effort to present something in Miami that represents a good step forward. But everything is relative: if the others also evolve, we will still be behind. We need to take weight off the car and gain downforce. It will depend on how much we can achieve by Miami.”
A five-week break, caused by the conflict in the Middle East, will give teams time to implement major updates before the Miami GP in early May. Fred Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, pointed out that the GP could mark “the start of a new championship,” with the hierarchy possibly altered.
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