Sainz sees ‘serious issues’ as Williams launches FW48 review

Williams team principal James Vowles admits that the rate of progress in F1 2026 has not been enough to move the team forward. A review of the FW48 development cycle has been launched.

That comes after Williams driver Carlos Sainz said he was “worried” in the aftermath of the British Grand Prix. Sainz believes that Williams is having “serious issues with developing this car,” having been left underwhelmed by the Silverstone update.

Carlos Sainz concerned as Williams FW48 review launched

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Williams brought a new front wing to Silverstone, looking to boost an FW48 machine which has been slipping towards the back of the midfield.

Both Sainz and Albon made Q2, the first time that had happened since Monaco, though Sainz was left disappointed on race day as his point-less run extended to four grands prix.

Hit with a very rare one-lap penalty by the FIA post-race, following Williams confusion during a late Safety Car period, that was salt in the wound for Sainz.

When PlanetF1.com and others caught up with Sainz post-race, he made his feelings clear over Williams’ present predicament.

“Concerning and frustrating, because it starts to be a bad trend this year that we don’t seem to really find a lot of lap time when the upgrades are coming,” he said.

“We need to have a good sit down now this week, analyse what’s happening, because unfortunately we’ve shed a lot of weight out of the car by now, but the gap to the front is increasing and the gap to the rear of the midfield keeps increasing, so we don’t seem to be finding the lap-by-lap [pace] we expected.

“Obviously, I’m not happy. Today, I’m very obviously upset. You’ll see me now, I think a bit upset – worried, maybe, is the right word.

“No-one likes getting overtaken, especially after so many good starts that we’re doing this year, and getting ourselves in the points because dropping back has been a pattern this season.

“Today was a frustrating day, so you will not see me very cheerful, but when I wake up and I go to the factory in the morning, I will be smiling again and trying to put my energy to try and improve the situation and try and help the team to find the problems that we’re having, because it’s clear to me now that we’re having serious issues with developing this car, and we are not bringing the performance that we thought we were.”

Speaking in a Williams video following the race weekend, team boss James Vowles accepted that Williams is not adding the performance needed to the FW48.

Sainz’s request for a deeper analysis has been granted.

“I would say right now what’s clear is our rate of bringing performance to the car – which is a little bit nuanced in how I mean that – is not at the rate required in order for us to move forward,” said Vowles.

“Step one of all of that is to make sure that we take time to fully understand not just what we’ve done in Silverstone, but really what we’ve done across the entire season.

“All of them have clues and evidence as to what went well and what didn’t at the same time. How quickly we evaluate that, and typically I would expect that to be done within the next two weeks, then defines what we do in Spa, what we do in Budapest, what we do across the remainder of the season, and what we do going into next year at the same time.

“Now that is, I would say, business as usual for a Formula 1 team. The amount of highs and lows you get, the amount of learning you get, the amount of failures you get, the difference to expectations, that does change week on week.

“But it is just the nature of a business that is bringing performance, bringing new items that didn’t exist previously. They didn’t exist in the world. And to a certain extent, no one else certainly provides you with data, but no one else has done it. So we have to be learning on the fly as a result of that.”

More on Carlos Sainz from PlanetF1.com

Carlos Sainz receives unprecedented FIA penalty after British GP

Carlos Sainz joins Fernando Alonso in F1 upgrade mystery

In a boost for Sainz, Vowles did add his belief that Williams possesses “a very good culture of openness, learning and turnaround speed.”

Williams sits P8 in the Constructors’ standings, with 11 points scored, going into the Belgian Grand Prix.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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