Carlos Sainz has admitted he doubts that Williams’s upcoming B-spec Formula 1 car will be enough to bridge the one-second gap required to challenge for points on pure merit this season.
Speaking on The Fast And The Curious podcast, the Spaniard offered a sobering assessment of the Grove outfit’s current performance, explaining how far the team must climb to rejoin the midfield battle.
Williams has endured a tough start to the 2026 season. After it missed private testing in Barcelona at the end of January, it arrived at pre-season testing in Bahrain already on the back foot. Equipped with an overweight car, Sainz and his team-mate Alex Albon have been fighting to claim whatever points they can.
After upgrades that contributed to some much-needed weight loss were introduced at the Miami Grand Prix, the team moved to eighth in the constructors’ championship with 11 points.
While team chief James Vowles has indicated that a big upgrade package, which he hopes will allow Sainz and Albon to consistently fight for points, will be introduced around the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Sainz remains pragmatic about the gains the team will be able to make.
“It is very difficult for us to score points. It is almost impossible to score points with the lack of performance we have. So things need to change a lot in the second half or the last third of the season for us to actually be able to get into contention on merit for points,” Sainz explained.
Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“That doesn’t mean we cannot score points in the odd race where a lot of things happen, but the reality is that we don’t have the performance, and when the B-spec car arrives, I don’t believe it will give us as much as one second per lap, which is what we need to get into points contention.
“For more context, last year when we were fifth in the championship, we were only four to five tenths off McLaren, which was winning the championship. This year we are two seconds off Mercedes, which is two worlds in Formula 1, and we are one second off VCARB.
“So, unfortunately, really big gaps have opened up this year and, if we want to correct them and get back onto the right path, we need some very big changes and probably for that we need a winter to correct the difficulties that we’re having.”
