Carlos Sainz has issued a candid assessment of Williams’ progress after the Miami Grand Prix, warning that Alpine remains “clearly” ahead despite the team’s improved performance in Florida — and revealing that the upgrade package delivered in Miami was originally scheduled to arrive two months earlier in Australia.
Williams scored its first double-points finish of the 2026 season as Sainz and Alex Albon claimed ninth and 10th respectively. But Sainz came home almost 20 seconds behind Franco Colapinto’s sixth-placed Alpine, a gap that underscored the ground Williams still needs to recover after a troubled start to the campaign.
The team entered 2026 with optimism following a strong 2025 season in which Sainz secured two podiums and Williams finished fifth in the constructors’ standings. Development delays over the winter, however, left the FW48 off the pace, with just two points scored across the opening three races.
Delayed Upgrade Finally Arrives
Speaking after the Miami race, Sainz confirmed that the upgrade package Williams brought to the circuit was the same specification originally intended for the season opener in Australia.
“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.”
The Spaniard acknowledged the upgrade had brought Williams closer to the midfield battle, allowing the team to compete on merit with Haas, VCARB, and Audi. But he was blunt about the gap that remains to Alpine and the front of the field.
“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.”
Sainz finished more than 80 seconds behind race winner Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes — a deficit inflated by safety car periods, but one that illustrated the scale of Williams’ challenge. He described Alpine as occupying “no-man’s land” between the midfield and the leading teams, a tier Williams has yet to reach.
Weight Issues Remain
While the Miami upgrade delivered a measurable step forward, Sainz confirmed that Williams is still carrying excess weight, limiting the team’s ability to extract maximum performance from the FW48.
“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.”
He praised the team’s effort in bringing the upgrade to Miami and said the package would now serve as a “new baseline” for further development. Additional components are expected over the coming races, though Sainz cautioned that a full turnaround will take time.
On a personal level, Sainz said he was happier than after the opening rounds, where he had struggled to match the pace of the midfield pack. In Miami, Williams beat Haas, VCARB, and Audi on pace, a contrast to the half-second deficit the team had carried just one race earlier.
“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.”
Recovery Expected by Season’s End
Sainz tempered expectations for a swift recovery, projecting that Williams will need until the final third of the season to complete what he called a “proper turnaround.”
“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.”
He acknowledged that the double-points finish in Miami offered relief but stressed it fell short of the team’s ambitions heading into 2026.
“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.”
Williams will look to consolidate its Miami performance at the next round, with further incremental upgrades planned as the team works to close the gap to Alpine and re-establish itself in the upper midfield fight.