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AUSTIN, Texas – May 9, 2026
Carlos Sainz says Williams will not measure success by pure lap time this weekend at the United States Grand Prix. After a scrappy pair of opening practice sessions, the Spaniard was honest about where the team stands: there is no quick fix coming in Austin.
Sainz was 19th in first practice and 20th in second practice as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc swept the day. The Williams driver was more than 2.7 seconds off Leclerc’s benchmark around the Circuit of the Americas, a significant margin in modern Formula 1 terms. For context, a gap of that size puts Williams in a different performance tier from the front-running cars rather than a setup mistake or a one-off lap issue.
It was not a clean day for Sainz. Team radio from the cockpit captured the frustration as he battled the FW47’s handling. The car, by his own description, was a “mess,” and he said he had “no confidence” in it through the high-speed sections that make COTA so demanding. That lack of reassurance under braking appeared to carry over to his final runs in both sessions.
His teammate Alex Albon had an even harder time. Albon was the slowest of the field, and he spent much of the afternoon fighting the car’s rear axle. The Thai-British driver appeared to wrestle the Williams through the sweeping Esses and the tricky Turn 19 hairpin, losing time and track position. It was a familiar story for a team that has spent much of the season bouncing between optimism and frustration.
Sainz, speaking after the second session, did not hide from the reality. He said Williams knows it is “pretty much nowhere to be seen this year” and that the entire race weekend had been approached with low expectations. But he was careful to draw a distinction between a poor result and a wasted day. The running, he explained, still had value for gathering information that may help the team identify why the current car is not responding to set-up changes.
He stopped short of calling the day a complete write-off. Each run, he noted, added to the team’s understanding of a car that has been difficult to read since its first race. The problem, in his view, is not just a lack of performance; it is a lack of predictability.
Asked whether Williams had already shifted its focus to next season, Sainz suggested the priority remains solving the current car’s weaknesses before making bigger plans.
“More than parts for next year, it's mapping this year's car properly,” he said. “We need to know why it is so bad. We're going to understand what to do better for next year.”
Paul Williams, the team’s chief trackside engineer, backed up that view with more technical detail. He said Williams had deliberately run a different programme in FP1, using the session to gather data that would be relevant both to the closing races of this season and to the development of the next car. The team, he added, is trying to find a balance between long-run consistency and one-lap, low-fuel speed — a blend that is especially important at a circuit like COTA where overtaking is relatively easy.
“One of the easiest overtaking tracks, if not the easiest,” Williams said. “So we'll be focusing more on high-fuel long-run performance and finding that correct balance between the low-fuel qualifying pace and high fuel. That's really going to be our main focus and extracting that from the FP2 data.”
The Austin weekend has already developed into a study of Williams’ current formula one problem. The team arrived in Texas under no illusions. Friday’s pace only confirmed that the Carlos Sainz-led project is still a work in progress.
From an outside perspective, Williams’ dilemma is straightforward: without understanding the existing car, no amount of new parts will unlock the lap time they need. The next car is the bigger prize, but the process of developing this year’s car remains important because it shapes the team’s internal processes and the lessons carried into that project. Every session like Friday’s, however painful, adds to the engineering baseline.
There is also the risk of falling into a development spiral. If Williams focuses too much on next season’s car, the current season becomes an extended test programme, which hurts morale and can limit commercial appeal. If the team focuses too much on rescue — throwing parts at an uncooperative car — it risks repeating mistakes. The quotes from Sainz and Paul Williams suggest the team is trying to chart a middle course: gather data, avoid false hope, but keep pushing on the current package.
There was at least one positive detail in Friday’s running. Williams completed a solid number of laps in both sessions, giving the engineers enough telemetry to compare baseline set-ups across the two cars. Albon’s balance issues differed slightly from Sainz’s, which may give the team some directions to test overnight. The next opportunity to confirm those fixes comes in Saturday’s final practice, where running will be shorter but also closer to qualifying conditions.
Qualifying will be a revealing session. Even Sainz admitted Williams cannot expect miracles, which means the target is likely not to challenge for the top ten but to close the gap from “nowhere” to somewhere within reach of points. The team has scored points in recent seasons from similar starting positions, so it knows how much can change between practice and race day. However, this year’s package has been less forgiving.
Whether the car can be transformed by Sunday depends on how much of Friday’s data leads to genuine understanding. Sainz’s tone suggests he is prepared for more pain before progress. That grounded stance may be the healthiest sign Williams has produced all day.
