Carlos Sainz exit rumours swirl amid Barcelona Williams comments

Carlos Sainz, Williams, Japan, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

Carlos Sainz exit rumours swirl amid Barcelona Williams comments

Carlos Sainz has been vocal about Williams' struggles in 2026

By Sam Cook.

Sunday 21 June 2026 21:01

Williams F1 star Carlos Sainz has admitted that he has been surprised by quite how far his team have been off the pace in 2026, as rumours of an exit from the team swirl.

Sainz joined Williams in January 2025, having been replaced at Ferrari by Lewis Hamilton, but he has not had it all his own way since joining the Grove-based outfit.

Despite claiming two grand prix podiums in 2025, Sainz finished behind team-mate Alex Albon in the standings, and in 2026, he has seen his team's form fall away.

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Williams have an overweight car, and that has meant that the Spaniard has only managed to claim six points from the opening seven race weekends, currently sat down in 14th in the drivers' championship.

That's despite the fact that he's a grand prix winner as recently as 2024, and is still held in high regard around the paddock.

31-year-old Sainz has already driven for five different teams across his career in F1, and it was thought that Audi were an option for him when he was replaced by Hamilton at Ferrari, but he eventually landed on Williams.

Sainz surprised by Williams struggles

Sainz has admitted that he has been surprised by how far off the pace that Williams have been, since the 2026 regulation changes swept into the sport.

“I think realistically speaking, we expected it to be hard,” Sainz told media in Barcelona. “Looking back at it, I think it's been a bit more of a shock of how far we are in medium and high-speed corners [behind], partly due to weight, but even more important, the downforce that we have in the car.

“So I think it's been a massive, I wouldn't call it shock, not even a wake-up call, because we knew it, but a realisation that we are very far from where we should be, where we targeted to be, or where we want to be.

“So I think it's time to go back to the drawing board and start bringing more things to the car, because clearly in a medium speed track we are very far [behind].”

Sainz unsure of Williams upgrade potency

Sainz has revealed that there are upgrades coming for Williams, but that he's unsure quite how much impact they will have amid the development race that all teams are going through at the moment.

“I know what's coming and for sure what's coming normally, in this team, upgrades really tend to work,” Sainz continued. “But at the same time, I'm not sure if it's enough to cut the gap that we have in this sort of track. So I think we need to do more than what we are doing already.

“Every week for the team, it's super important to find points of downforce or kilos of weight, because even though I realise that the team is pushing flat-out back at home, and we are all pushing with everything we have, we probably need even more. So we need to focus a lot.

“We need to realise that Barcelona is a very good track to measure a car's performance, and this weekend we were anything between 1.6 and 1.9 seconds from the leaders, and almost six or seven tenths from the first midfield car. So that's our target.”

F1 Carlos Sainz Williams Audi