Carlos Sainz 'worried' after explaining 'serious' issue Williams must fix

Carlos Sainz has explained his worry at "serious issues" he believes Williams must fix following a poor 2026 season so far.

Williams' car was initially delivered overweight, and the team has embarked on a programme to remove the excess from the FW48, with a big upgrade package planned for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in September.

For the British GP, a new front-wing was delivered, but Sainz and team-mate Alex Albon were unable to challenge for points, with Sainz receiving an unusual one-lap penalty from the stewards after a safety car mix-up and Albon retiring. 

The team has not scored a point since Sainz's eighth place in Monaco, and have hauled 11 for the season, with closest rivals Audi enjoying its first points haul since Australia at Silverstone with Gabriel Bortoleto in eighth to move the Ingolstadt-concern to six points, five behind Williams. 

However, Bortoleto has recently played up the strength of the Audi chassis, believing it could be "top-three" on the grid, with the weakness in that project being the first in-house power unit. 

Reflecting on the tough weekend at Silverstone, Sainz spoke of a "bad trend" of upgrades not boosting Williams and his puzzlement at an overweight car at the Japanese GP being closer to the front than a lighter, upgraded one in Britain. 

"We had a good start, and I thought from there the race was on, because maybe the dirty air, I could hold them off for the rest of the race, but as soon as we settled in, we saw that the Alpine and Audis were simply too quick for us," Sainz told media, including RacingNews365.

"It is concerning and frustrating because it is starting to be a bad trend this year that we don't really seem to find a lot of lap time when the upgrades are coming; we need to have a good sit-down, because we've shed a lot of weight out of the car, and the gap to the rear of the midfield keeps increasing. 

"[Now] I am upset, but worried is maybe the right word. Nobody likes to be overtaken, especially after good starts and getting ourselves in the points and then dropping back. It has been a pattern this season; it was frustrating.

"But when I go to the factory, I will be smiling and trying to put all my energy into trying to improve the situation, because it is clear to me now that we are having serious issues.

"I don't know that with this set of regulations that we're not understanding the flow dynamics, or what is happening, but in Suzuka, we were 1.6s off with an overweight car, and at Silverstone, we're two seconds off with a much better weight.

"It means that something is not going into the car, something is missing, and we need to be serious about finding the issues and bounce back."