Sainz says Williams must understand current car after difficult Austin Friday

Williams’ difficult Friday in Austin left Carlos Sainz braced for a tough United States Grand Prix weekend. The team was, he said, “not expecting any miracles”.

Sainz finished 19th in FP1 and 20th in FP2, more than 2.7 seconds behind Charles Leclerc, who topped both sessions. Team-mate Alex Albon was last in both and struggled to keep his car on track. Sainz called his own car a “mess” over team radio and said he had “no confidence” in it.

Speaking after FP2 on Friday, Sainz said Williams would try to learn as much as possible. Asked whether the team’s focus had already shifted to testing parts and strategies for 2027, he agreed, but stressed that Williams first needed to map this season’s car and understand why it was performing so poorly. He said that work would help the team determine what to do better next year.

Paul Williams, Williams’ chief trackside engineer, said Friday’s programme looked ahead but still had to balance performance in Austin and the remaining races this season with next year’s car. He described COTA as one of the easiest circuits for overtaking and said Williams would use FP2 data to assess high-fuel long-run performance against low-fuel qualifying pace.