WILLIAMS ‘COMPLETELY MISSED THIS SET OF REGULATIONS AND GOT IT REALLY WRONG’ – SAINZ

Carlos Sainz doesn't buy the idea that Williams' brutal 2026 collapse is about money. The team has scored just 12 points through Malaysia — down from 86 at the same point last year — and Sainz says that's on the car, not the cost cap. "We completely missed this set of regulations and got it really wrong," he said, pointing to a failed aero concept that's left Williams scrapping for Q2 all season.

Team principal James Vowles recently blamed the budget cap for trapping Williams in a cycle where infrastructure upgrades pull from car development. Sainz agrees that's a real problem — decades of underinvestment can't be fixed quickly when every dollar for tools is a dollar not on the car. But that's not why they're slow right now.

The Baku upgrade package ended a nine-race pointless streak, but Sainz says it's nowhere near enough. Williams will be fighting for scraps through Abu Dhabi.