After a promising 2025 at Williams, Carlos Sainz believes he has turn into a greater driver now than he was throughout his time at Ferrari.
2025 noticed Sainz be a part of the Grove-based squad after being changed on the Scuderia by Lewis Hamilton, and exceded his and the group’s expectations with two podiums.
This helped the group to safe fifth within the Constructors Championship, which in flip, helped the group to carry excessive hopes going into 2026 with the brand new laws.
Regardless of Williams being one of many first groups to confess that they’d turned their consideration to the brand new rulebook and weren’t going to proceed upgrading their 2025 equipment, 2026 has been a woeful 12 months.
With solely 12 factors scored, Williams presently sits ninth within the desk, with Sainz and Albon 18th and nineteenth respectively, the bottom level return among the many Mercedes-backed energy trains.
Subsequently, it has been an agonising and irritating season for Sainz, from profitable races in his final season for Ferrari to preventing for a Q2 look two years later.
What makes Carlos Sainz extra ‘pissed off’
For Sainz, it feels nearly an irony that he’s on this place, given he’s acting on a better stage than he was earlier than.
“I can solely inform you from my place, it’s a very irritating place to be in,” Sainz mentioned to media, together with Motorsport Week, on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix.
“To assume I used to be profitable right here in Mexico two years in the past and on Saturday I shall be beginning P17 on the grid and I’m the identical driver, if something, I’m a greater driver than I used to be on 2024.
“I can solely inform you how irritating it’s, it’s tough to just accept typically, however all of us have the self-discipline that when or not less than when the visor goes down, even when I can obtain P16 or P17, I’m not going to place myself in a silly state of affairs.”
The Spaniard has admitted that in his time at Williams and racing in direction of the again of the sphere has given him a newfound appreciation for the difficulties related to driving for a backmarker group.
“Once I was main in Mexico and complaining concerning the blue flags, I’ve now been at each ends of the sphere. It’s much more tough to take care of than what you see on TV,” He mentioned.
“It’s one thing that I’ve realized this 12 months. I might by no means have favored to have realized this sadly, however it’s one thing that I’ve needed to undergo this 12 months and I’m positively not having fun with it, and I’m going to strive and ensure I’m by no means on this place once more.”
Williams recored a zero factors haul in São Paulo, regardless of a climate altering qualifying enabling the Spaniards teammate Alex Albon to progress to Q3 and begin within the prime 10.
Sainz, who completed two laps down in nineteenth, took a while experimenting with set-up course that helped enhance the competitiveness of his FW48.
“Throughout the race, it was such a difficult first stint that I drained a number of issues on the instruments and on the entrance wing. All of the sudden within the final stint, I used to be is rather more aggressive and that makes me assume I’ll have discovered one thing to look into.” He mentioned.
“Nevertheless, throughout Friday practise, we had been taking part in with the arrange however didn’t discover something large.”
Can Williams claw again a number of factors within the final triple header?
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