The Spaniard acknowledged that the gap to the French team is still very large. Williams achieved its best result of the season in Florida with a ninth and a tenth place, the goal now is to establish themselves in the midfield.
Williams breathed a sigh of relief in Miami, as for the first time in the 2026 season, the British team managed to score points with both cars. Carlos Sainz finished ninth and Alex Albon tenth, a haul that tastes like little but means a lot after a forgettable start to the championship. The Spaniard, however, is not satisfied, and his goal now is clear: Alpine.
"Clearly, I think we were the sixth fastest, but Alpine is 20 seconds ahead of us, it would have been 25-30 seconds without the safety car, so for Alpine there is still a big gap," Sainz declared to the media, the gap is considerable, but the Spaniard prefers to see the glass half full: "We have to keep our heads down and from here, make this the new baseline and start improving," he added.
The FW48 was born badly; that is the reality that Sainz himself has recognized on several occasions. The main problem was the overweight, according to team sources, the extra kilos weighed down performance by approximately one second per lap, the delay in the crash test, the absence from the Barcelona 'shakedown,' and an arrival at the Bahrain tests with accumulated homework turned the start of the year into a nightmare.
In Australia, no Williams made it to Q2, in China and Japan, the pace was equally poor, the two points that Sainz scored in Shanghai came more from other people's retirements than from his own merits, but the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix gave the team a breather. Five weeks to work, to reduce the overweight and to try to get back on track.
The result was seen in Miami, Williams went from being the ninth car on the grid to becoming the sixth fastest, the points arrived and now, the goal is to climb more positions. Alpine is the undisputed leader of the midfield, the French team has 23 points and occupies fifth place in the constructors' championship, while Williams is eighth with five points, nine behind seventh (Racing Bulls) and 18 behind the French.
The gap is large, on track, Franco Colapinto put 20 seconds on Sainz in Miami, a gap that the Spaniard considers unacceptable: "The disadvantage to the leaders I wouldn't even know how to say," he admitted, but at Williams, they believe that, if they continue to reduce the overweight and improve the aerodynamic package, they can get closer.
The next challenge will be in Canada, from May 22 to 24, and there, Williams hopes to confirm the improvement. Alpine, meanwhile, is advancing at a pace that the British consider, for now, unattainable, but the goal has already been set, and Sainz is not giving up.