The Spaniard assured that the British team is in the middle of a recovery process after a complicated winter. He trusts that in the final third of the year they can be where they should have been from the start, although he rules out fighting for podiums.
Carlos Sainz focused on Williams' future during the presentation of the new Madring, the street circuit that will host the Spanish Grand Prix in September, and assured that the British team is in the middle of a recovery process after a complicated winter that conditioned the FW48's start to the season: "We have done practically the first third of the season to recover from what we went through this winter, there is a second third in which we will have to invest time and resources to be prepared for that final third to be where Williams should have been from the start" declared the Spanish driver.
Williams arrived in the new regulatory era with the ambition of repeating the success of 2025, when it finished fifth in the constructors' championship with over 100 points and Sainz added three podiums. However, problems in the FW48's manufacturing during pre season (the team did not attend the first laps in Barcelona) and the car's overweight weighed down its performance in the first races. Little by little, the team has been improving and Sainz has strung together three Grands Prix inside the points, but the reality is that Williams remains behind Alpine and Audi.
The Spaniard trusts that the team can make a leap in quality in the final third of the season and recover the midfield leadership it already achieved in 2025. "I trust in the final third of the season, but there is still a lot of work to do, this year I think you have all seen that it is going to be complicated" stated Sainz.
"It is true that the Williams of the final third of the season should be a much better Williams than the one I have now, but that said, the gap to the top is so big that it is difficult to think about podiums at this stage" he added.
Williams has shown in recent races that its development rate is one of the best on the grid, and the team trusts that the upgrades they are preparing for the coming weeks will allow them to get closer to Alpine and Audi, the two teams currently leading the midfield. Sainz does not set impossible goals, but he believes that the FW48 can be competitive in the second half of the championship.
The Grove team has worked intensively to address the car's overweight and aerodynamic issues, and the results are already being seen on track. Williams hopes that, in the final races of the season, it can fight for points regularly and establish itself as the best midfield team, a goal that seems closer than it did a few months ago.
