Williams debuted an Avenger's: Doomsday livery at Comic Con this year and will be available to view at their Austin Fan Zone as a show car!

Carlos Sainz has seen his comeback in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix cut short. The Spanish Williams driver who had managed to qualify ninth with his updated FW48, has been sanctioned with five places on the starting grid for not respecting the yellow flags during Q3. The penalty will force him to start from fourteenth position, a hard blow for a team that had placed great hopes in the update introduced in Baku.

The incident occurred during the final phase of qualifying: Lando Norris went off the track before Sainz's arrival, which caused the display of single yellow flags in marshals' sectors 4 and 5, particularly after turn 2 and on the approach to turn 3, the Williams team warned Sainz on the radio: "Yellow ahead, lift", the Spaniard confirmed at the hearing that he was aware of the situation.

Alex Albon has put numbers to the disappointment, the Thai Williams driver, far from sugarcoating reality, has bluntly exposed the magnitude of the regression the British team is going through in the 2026 season: "Realistically, right now we are finishing races about 50 seconds behind the midfield, we are losing more or less a second per lap in races. It would have to be quite a big upgrade to recover that" declared Albon, summarizing the abyss that separates the FW48 from its direct rivals.

The contrast with 2025 is devastating. Last year Williams closed the season as fifth placed, with Carlos Sainz scoring three podiums between Azerbaijan, Qatar and the United States. The team seemed to have found its place in the midfield and the FW48, the result of considerable investment in resources and time, was supposed to consolidate that progress, however the FIA's new technical regulations have blown up Grove's plans. Williams currently occupies ninth position in the constructors' championship with just eleven points, behind Audi and Haas.

Lance Stroll and Ollie Bearman both didn't complete any laps in the session due to issues with their cars. Valtteri Bottas and Checo Perez take up 19th and 20th, with both the hometown heros, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, the last two eliminated.

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Carlos Sainz joined Williams after Ferrari decided not to renew his contract in order to finalize the signing of Lewis Hamilton for the 2024 Formula 1 season, one of the most impactful moves in the history of modern motorsport. Consequently, the Madrid-born driver had to seek a seat amidst a stagnant driver market that left him with few options.

Despite rumors linking him to teams like Audi, Mercedes, or Red Bull Racing, Carlos Sainz ended up signing with Williams in an unexpected move, given that the British team has not been truly competitive for many years; however, the Spanish driver signed with them thanks to a lucrative contract and the promise that the team aimed to fight at the front of the grid under the new 2026 regulations.

With 96 race starts for the team, Albon overtakes Nigel Mansell for most race starts in the teams history!

Williams, the team of Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon, has confirmed a significant off-track signing ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship. The British outfit has not delivered the results expected this season, having consciously sacrificed 2025 to redirect all resources toward next year's regulations.

James Vowles' team made the announcement during Monaco Grand Prix week, confirming that Dr. James Smith had been appointed as Chief Information Officer, bringing more than a decade of experience at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence and data science to the role.

Williams F1 is getting ready for the Suzuka Circuit.