Carlos Sainz sets sights on Alpine after ‘delayed’ Williams upgrade arrives

Carlos Sainz has warned that Alpine remains “clearly” ahead of Williams despite the team’s improved performance at the recent Miami Grand Prix.

And he has revealed that the upgrade package Williams took to Florida was originally expected to arrive at the opening race in Australia two months ago.

Carlos Sainz: Alpine still ‘clearly ahead of Williams despite being in ‘no-man’s land’

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Williams entered the F1 2026 season with high hopes after its most successful campaign for some time in 2025, which saw Sainz claim two podiums as the team secured fifth place in the constructors’ standings.

However, the team has endured a troubled start to the season after delays with the development of the FW48 car last winter.

Having scored just two points across the opening three races, Williams enjoyed an improved showing in Miami as Sainz and teammate Alex Albon finished ninth and 10th respectively.

Sainz came home almost 20 seconds adrift of the Alpine of Franco Colapinto, which finished sixth.

Carlos Sainz vs Alex Albon: Williams head-to-head stats for F1 2026 season

F1 2026: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between teammates

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Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after the race, Sainz declared that Williams had made a “positive” step forward in Miami.

Yet he insisted that the team still has a long way to go to challenge the upper midfield.

Sainz said: “We finally put the upgrade on the car that was supposed to come to race one, because of all the delays we had at the beginning of the season.

“Now we’ve finally put on the car what was supposed to be the race one 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 overweight [issues] to set up the car.

“When you look at that, then 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 come away a bit better.

“Clearly, this weekend, we were I think sixth fastest, but then Alpine is 20 seconds in front of us.

“It would have been 25-30 [seconds] without a safety car, so to Alpine there’s still a big gap and [the deficit] to the frontrunners I couldn’t even tell you.

“So we need to put our heads down and, from here, make this the new baseline and start improving.”

Asked if he is happier than after the first three races of the season, he added: “On a personal level, yes.

“Obviously yes because I was [15th] in Suzuka, in front of Franco, and [ninth] in China, but really far away from the base of the midfield.

“And being able to fight here, we beat the midfield fair and square.

“The Alpine [might be] in no-man’s land, but it’s still clearly in front of us in no-man’s land.

“But at least the Haas, the VCARBs, the Audis, I think we managed to beat them on pace on merit, which is something a race ago we were half a second behind in terms of race pace, so we must have done a pretty decent step.”

Put to him that he finished 82 seconds adrift of the race-winning Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli in Miami, Sainz interrupted: “With a lot of safety car laps.

“So not where we want to be. Still, I expect everyone at home to know this is still not where we want to be, even if it feels for everyone 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 admitted that patience will be required over the remainder of F1 2026, claiming “a proper turnaround” by Williams will not come until the closing months of the season.

He said: “It’s going to take some months to finish the turnaround.

“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 work, 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, so we’re going to keep the positives and making sure we keep focusing.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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