Carlos Sainz asks how he can help after Williams Barcelona delay

Williams will make a delayed debut to its F1 2026 on-track preparations, as team boss James Vowles was quizzed on the reaction from one-half of their driver line-up, Carlos Sainz.

Williams will miss the entire Barcelona shakedown, but despite the frustration, Sainz’s the first question was how he could help.

Carlos Sainz supportive and out to help Williams

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One of the biggest regulatory shake-ups in Formula 1 history, if not the biggest, Williams has been laser focused on F1 2026 for almost a year.

But, Williams was not able to make the five-day shakedown run currently taking place in Barcelona. Instead, the team will have its FW48 on the track in time for the first Bahrain test next month.

When Sainz was dropped by Ferrari in favour of Lewis Hamilton, a large part of putting his faith in Williams came with an eye to the future. Running the well-fancied Mercedes engine in F1 2026, Williams is a team to keep an eye on.

So, considering that Williams is the only team not to make it to Barcelona, Vowles was asked how Sainz reacted to the situation.

Teammate Alex Albon gave his response via social media, saying this is what can happen when a team is “pushing the limits.”

“Carlos, from the second I’ve called him, his first question is, ‘What can I do to help? I’m here with you and supportive,'” Vowles told PlanetF1.com and a select group of other accredited media.

“He’s frustrated as I’m frustrated. We’re here to go racing or go testing at this point in time, or going shakedown, as it is. But we’re not.”

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Williams cited “delays in the FW48 programme” when explaining its Barcelona absence. Vowles therefore was asked in what way Williams must improve in its production department.

“In terms of the production area, these are never one thing,” he stressed. “It literally isn’t. It is thousands of thousands of details.

“Our production area has moved forward, as has every part of this business. And I need to acknowledge that, and everyone needs to be aware of it. There’s an incredible passion down there. I’m impressed with the amount of hours in the day that everyone is giving me, but we’re also still being hindered by systems and tools that aren’t at the right level.

“What that means is we’re dropping efficiency. It’s not a lot of efficiency, but you don’t need a lot of efficiency to start falling behind by one or two per cent, and that’s the output from where we are.

“What we need is, as we are already doing, continued investment in that area. So there’s large projects, and I have now a much stronger team around. There’s already a very different team to what we’ve had two years ago and 12 months.

“It’s a team that really do understand what great looks like, and they’re actively demanding and requesting, rightly so, investment, and we’re making that investment to get ourselves into the right place.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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The first, official, pre-season test in Bahrain, where Williams shall be in action, will take place from 11-13 February.

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