Williams needs “big philosophy change” to be competitive everywhere in F1 2026

Carlos Sainz used the Hungarian Grand Prix as an example in explaining the design philosophy changes needed at Williams for the 2026 Formula 1 campaign, as the team struggled at the Hungaroring.

In reviewing his opening 14 rounds at the team, Sainz felt that Williams’ poor form in Hungary had been in line with expectations seen over 2025; the Spaniard noted that the FW47 performs well in circuits with longer straights and short corners, but struggles to retain downforce through the longer radius turns.

Although Williams has ensured that its car this season has been more of an all-rounder and has scored points at 10 of the 14 weekends, it still retains some of the characteristics shown by its forebears. The Williams FW44 to 46 cars all performed well in high speeds, but were also very peaky in terms of downforce output. This ensured that the last three years had been defined by inconsistent results.

Sainz added that there was little Williams could do about that situation until next year, when its all-new 2026 car gets pressed into action – and revealed his hopes that it will take on board his feedback.

“It’s [Hungaroring] always been a difficult track for the team,” Sainz, who joined Williams this year from Ferrari, said. “We had quite a long debrief after qualifying because obviously I’m coming from the team that was on pole going back to a team that was P13 with me. 

“I could give them very strong feedback on why this car is lagging around a track like this. Obviously for this year we cannot do anything, but for the future hopefully it’s a very big learning curve for the team to know how we need to develop the Formula 1 car to be successful and competitive also in tracks like Budapest or Barcelona.

“We have relatively poor aero characteristics in long corners where you need to hold the downforce from entry to mid-corner. We struggle with these kind of things. 

“It’s been a trend for a very long time. That’s why long straights and sharp short corners is good for the team. But at the moment we get into long combined corners of Barcelona, Hungary, Qatar – the car really struggles. 

“It needs a very big design philosophy change for the future. We’re trying to understand where and what to change to make sure that next year’s car is a bit more of an all-rounder and gives us a better platform to work in multiple tracks.”

Despite his reservations about the current Williams package at certain circuits, Sainz feels that everyone in the Williams team is aligned on its future direction as it seeks to win a first title since 1997.

He added that the squad was not actively developing its 2025 car and thus could not put the drivers’ feedback into practice beyond at-track set-up directions. Sainz said that perfecting his executions of weekends will be the trick to gathering further points versus the other midfield teams that have developed more.

“It’s been a very strong start to our time together in terms of the way we want to develop the team, the car, the interaction with Alex, with James,” said Sainz.

Alexander Albon, Williams, Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

“It’s not like we can exploit the feedback of the two drivers and the intentions that we have to develop this car, what we need, because we are not putting it in the wind tunnel to develop. 

“That’s where next year is going to be a lot more challenging for the team and for ourselves to see if we can actually improve the main weaknesses of this car that are very clear in tracks like this.

“From my side on the shorter term, I’ll just focus on weekend executions. There’s nothing really we can do to the aero or to the set-up of the car in the end. 

“I tried three or four different set-ups over the [Hungary] weekend to try and find an extra around tracks like this. I ended up reverting to the car that gave me the very competitive qualifying in Miami, Imola, at the beginning of the season. 

“The problem is I think we’ve got a bit outdeveloped, and come to a track where it’s very difficult for us. 

“The second half of the season, I will just seek consistency with set-up, consistency with the car, and just make sure we execute clean weekends.”