Carlos Sainz sees no quick fix after Williams struggle in Austin

Carlos Sainz says Williams is braced for a difficult United States Grand Prix after a troubled Friday at the Circuit of The Americas left both cars at the back of the field. The team is not anticipating a rapid turnaround, with its immediate priority to understand the car’s shortcomings and extract useful data from the weekend.

Sainz finished 19th in FP1 and 20th in FP2, more than 2.7 seconds off Charles Leclerc, who topped both sessions. Team-mate Alex Albon ended each practice at the bottom of the timesheets and struggled to keep his car on track.

Sainz’s frustration was evident over team radio, where he described the car as badly out of shape and said he lacked confidence. After FP2, he said Williams expected a tough weekend and would use the remaining sessions to learn rather than count on a major improvement.

Williams wants answers from its 2026 car

Sainz said the priority was not simply to test parts for next year. Williams first needs to map the current car properly and understand why its performance has been so poor, he explained, so the team can identify what to do better in 2027.

That means Friday’s difficulties are also a diagnostic exercise. Sainz’s comments come amid a challenging season with the team; readers can find related coverage in our report on his Williams commitment for 2027.

Trackside chief engineer Paul Williams said the team’s FP1 programme had been directed towards learning and future development. The challenge, he said, is to balance the needs of the remaining races this season with work aimed at improving next year’s car.

Long runs and qualifying pace are the next focus

Williams plans to use its remaining running to assess high-fuel long-run performance and find the right compromise between race pace and low-fuel qualifying speed. Paul Williams described COTA as one of the easiest circuits for overtaking, making that balance a key part of the team’s work with the FP2 data.

For Albon, too, the task is to help the team understand what is preventing the car from delivering a more consistent performance. Williams’ broader work on the project is explored in this related report on Albon and the team’s rebuild.

Friday left Williams with substantial ground to make up, but the team’s stated focus is clear: diagnose the car, study its performance over different fuel loads and carry those lessons into the rest of the season and beyond.