Carlos Sainz believes Williams has finally arrived at the competitive starting point it originally targeted for the 2026 Formula 1 season after the team’s long-awaited Miami upgrade package delivered a significant step forward in performance.
Williams celebrated its first double-points finish of the campaign in Miami, with Sainz finishing ninth ahead of team-mate Alex Albon, a result that lifted the squad clear of Audi and into eighth place in the constructors’ championship.
For Sainz, however, the result represented more than just points. It marked the beginning of what he hopes will become a steady recovery after a difficult start to Formula 1’s new regulations era.
“We finally put on the upgrade of the car that was supposed to come to Race 1,” Sainz explained.
“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 in the car, it's performing at least at the level of the midfield cars.”
Williams entered the season carrying excess weight on its car after delays in the build programme disrupted its winter preparations.
The Miami package was primarily aimed at addressing that issue, and Sainz believes the early signs are encouraging.
“We know we still have a lot of weight to shed off the car. 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.”
“It shows that when you do things right, things start to come away a bit better. Clearly, this weekend we were sixth fastest. But then Alpine is a good 20 seconds in front of us today.”
“It would have been 25-30s without a safety car. To Alpine there's still a big gap and to the frontrunners, I can't even tell you [how big]. We need to put our heads down and make this the new baseline and start improving.”
Despite the positive momentum, Sainz stressed that Williams remains far from its long-term target.
“Not where we want to be. I expect everyone at home to know this is still not where we want to be,” he said. “Even if it feels for everyone a bit of a relief.
“Getting two cars in the points 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 also cautioned that the rebuilding process will take time.
“It's going to take some months to finish the turnaround,” he explained. “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 a bit off but we still know there's a bit to go. We have a few bits and pieces coming for the next couple of races.
“We're going to keep the positives and make sure we keep focusing [to solve] on the negatives.”
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