Unexpected crisis
The winter of Williams it was anything but simple. Despite the excellent second half of 2025 and the great expectations placed in the regulatory revolution, the Grove team had to skip the Barcelona shakedowns entirely having not been ready in time with the new single-seater. An embarrassing situation only partially mitigated by the reliability shown in the six days of testing in Bahrain. The difficulties of the English team were admitted on Thursday in Melbourne without too much hesitation even from Carlos Sainzwho however showed himself confident in the team’s chances of recovery.
“The fact that this hasn’t been the easiest of winters for us is clear – admitted the Spaniard – we had difficult moments, but we still have the whole season ahead. Everyone is motivated to recover. Melbourne often offers surprises and we will try to capitalize. We will test the new rules on a track that is perhaps one of the most difficult to test them on given how ‘hungry’ it is for energy. We will have a very different situation compared to Bahrain. As far as we’re concerned, the top teams are very fast and the entire mid-group has slipped further back: we’ll have to see how we can recover. What went wrong? This is exactly what we are evaluating and trying to understand internally – concluded Sainz, speaking to the official F1 channel – after betting everything on 2026 we found ourselves in trouble. We need to analyze and understand, but this year it will be more about the growth potential than where we start. I want to lead the team to react as quickly as possible“.
Sainz’s prediction
Speaking on the podcast Beyond The GridSainz did not then shy away from a prediction on who will be the world champion of this highly anticipated and unpredictable 2026 season: “I say two names: George Russell or Max Verstappen“, ruled the Spaniard.
