Sainz already using 2026 pain for Williams future

Carlos Sainz has turned part of his Monza weekend into preparation for 2027 as Williams accepts that its troubled current car will not be transformed by the coming Baku upgrade.

The Spaniard, now confirmed to remain with Williams next season, said Friday practice was deliberately used to experiment with ideas for the next car.

"We didn’t look at qualifying too seriously because we’re testing very different things on the car to try and find things for next year," he said.

"We are testing some interesting things that will give us information for next year, sacrificing a bit of the weekend in that sense, but I think it will be interesting for the future."

Sainz has been particularly blunt about the current Williams, describing it at Monza as having "no real strengths and a lot of weaknesses".

Team boss James Vowles says an upgrade is still targeted for Baku, or Malaysia if production slips, involving weight reduction and aerodynamic changes.

"It won’t change our season, because the mistakes and problems we had over the winter were very significant," said Vowles.

"We’ve built an overweight car, behind schedule, and over budget."

And Vowles dismissed comparisons with Aston Martin’s dramatic mid-season step.

"It’s a revised car, there are good things," he said of Williams’ forthcoming upgrade. "But Aston has taken a very big step forward, congratulations."

"That’s not what we’re going to do, I wish it were."

Vowles nevertheless sounds increasingly convinced that keeping Sainz is central to Williams’ recovery, even comparing his technical feedback favourably with Lewis Hamilton.

"Carlos is the best driver I’ve worked with on the grid when it comes to interacting with the engineers," said Vowles, who previously worked with Hamilton at Mercedes.

When asked specifically whether his observation about Sainz included Hamilton, Vowles replied: "More than Lewis in that respect, yes."

"Lewis can describe sensations very, very well. But if you present him with the data, he’s not able to relate it to the specific point it corresponds to in that data."

"Carlos can take that step."

Vowles said that ability was a major reason he wanted Sainz at Williams.

"I hired him because he can change a team from within and make it his own," he said.