Carlos Sainz delivered a resilient performance at the 2026 F1 Chinese GP, extracting Williams’ first points finish for the 2026 season, despite the teams struggles and a difficult start to the season.
Strong race start at the F1 Chinese GP
The Spaniard started from P17 for Sunday’s Grand Prix, but with both McLaren cars, Gabriel Bortoleto and team mate Alex Albon not starting the race, this left Sainz only with 13 cars ahead of him on the grid. He was able to reach P10 on the opening lap, although he did drop some places in the further laps.
Speaking to print media after Sunday’s F1 Chinese Grand Prix, Sainz admitted that his starts in the FW48 have been strong, and that carried into his performance for the rest of the race.
“Yes, definitely. The starts have been good. This start of the season I had a mega start in Melbourne, a mega start yesterday in the sprint and another great start today, so at least in that department I’m putting a bit of an effort, as I know a driver can always make a bit of a difference.”
“I’m covering that off at the start of this year. For the rest, honestly, we did everything right. Doing everything right in the end brought us a top nine, which if you asked me before the race, I thought it was probably very improbable.”
In the final laps of the Grand Prix, it came down to a close battle with Franco Colapinto moved closer to Sainz, but was unable to overtake the Williams, giving Sainz a P9 finish and bringing home his first points of the season.
“Good defence at the end with Franco, playing around with the blue flags, with the overtake mode and trying to keep him behind on a fresh set of mediums for him, and very used hards.”
Difficult start to the 2026 season
Sainz had a difficult weekend in Round 1 of the 2026 F1 season at the Australian GP. He had an issue in FP3, which led him to miss Qualifying for the Grand Prix, essentially leaving him to start from the back row.
Williams also have a known issue with the FW48 being overweight, as well as a front-wing issue that has been apparent since testing.
“We know we are too slow, and we are too slow compared to where we wanted to be, compared to where we expected to be. Part of that is weight that we know we need to get out of the car, but another part, a very big part of it, is the downforce that we need to improve.“
Reliability has also been a concern, compounding the team’s struggles early in the season.
“We haven’t been the most reliable car also. Again, Alex today not starting the race and me missing so many free practices and having so many issues. Honestly, we need to level up because we are having too many issues in too many areas.“
Sainz stressed the need for a collective response from the team, urging a step forward in performance and consistency.
“As a team, we need to dig deep. I hope these two points serve as motivation, as a bit of a bonus motivation for everyone to come back home and dig deep because this is not where we wanted to be and where we said we would be this season.”
Improvements moving forward for Sainz
After a disrupted opening race in Melbourne, where damage to his front wing limited his ability to assess the car, Sainz finally feels he has a clearer understanding following a more representative run at the F1 Chinese GP.
“Yes, I did my whole race in Melbourne with a broken front wing, so I couldn’t assess the balance of the car. I think today everything was working as expected. That definitely, hopefully, gives the team my first proper take of the car in race conditions, so feedback.”
That clearer feedback, he hopes, will allow the team to shift focus toward fine-tuning performance and addressing underlying weaknesses.
“That hopefully will also mean we can focus on improving the setup, improving all the other things that are not performance. For the rest, we need to take the weight off and put down more stuff.”
