Sainz admits Williams' 2026 season has been a 'character-building year' after disappointing campaign

Carlos Sainz has admitted Williams' difficult 2026 Formula 1 campaign has fallen well short of his expectations, describing it as a "character-building year" that has exposed just how much work remains before the Grove-based team can realistically challenge Formula 1's frontrunners.

Speaking ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, Sainz reflected candidly on a season that has seen Williams slide backwards after making encouraging progress in 2025.

The Spaniard revealed that he had expected the introduction of Formula 1's all-new 2026 technical regulations to provide Williams with an opportunity to build on the momentum generated last year. Instead, the team has found itself further away from the front than anticipated.

"No, it wasn't in my plans or in my expectations," Sainz said when asked whether he had foreseen such a difficult season.

"I think I've been very open and very clear about the fact that I think in 2025 we overdelivered and, if anything, the results were better than what I expected when I signed my Williams contract in 2024."

Sainz praised last year's Williams package, believing it consistently performed above expectations.

"The 2025 car was a very good car, a car that was sometimes only three or four tenths off pole position, a car where you could feel that the balance was good."

Given that performance, the four-time Grand Prix winner expected Williams to at least maintain its competitiveness under the new regulations.

"Obviously, going into 2026, I expected, if anything, with more time to develop the 2026 car and a new set of regulations, that we could potentially either stay where we were or make a small step forward."

Instead, the opposite has happened. "Yet time has proven to me that it has obviously been the opposite, or the other way around, and that as a team we are further away from the top than we thought we were at the end of 2025."

Despite the disappointing campaign, Sainz believes the difficult season has provided valuable lessons for everyone at the Grove-based outfit.

"It's definitely been a character-building year for the whole team, a bit of an eye-opener in terms of how much work there is still to do if we even want to consider fighting with a top team in the future.

"A lot of things have been learned, a lot of things we've realised, and unfortunately it has been a bad year so far."

The former Ferrari driver insisted, however, that Williams now has a much clearer understanding of where its shortcomings lie and how to address them.

"We need to conclude and understand why and what happened. I think we have a pretty good understanding by now."

While optimistic about the team's long-term prospects, Sainz cautioned that reversing Williams' fortunes will not happen overnight.

"The capacity to turn it around is there, but obviously in Formula 1 it takes time. It takes time, effort, budget-cap money and a lot of analysis, and that's exactly where we are right now."