RaceFans has reported:

Carlos Sainz says Williams’ struggles in the 2026 Formula 1 season were caused by the team getting its car concept and aerodynamics wrong, rather than by the under-investment that team principal James Vowles has linked to the sport’s budget cap. Williams has scored 12 points so far this season, down from 86 at the same point last year.

Sainz said Vowles’ comments about the cap addressed a long-standing challenge for Williams and other teams following a similar path. In his view, years of limited investment in infrastructure cannot be recovered quickly under a spending limit that also restricts resources available for car development.

“When James says something as clear as that, it’s not a political battle, it is something that, for sure, 20 years’ under-investment you cannot recover quickly within a budget cap,” Sainz said. He added: “Because you’re basically attributing [part] of the budget cap, that is not being attributed to car development, in improving your infrastructure.”

“It is definitely the case for us and for other teams that are in the same trajectory and same path as us,” he said. Sainz said allowing teams with a history of under-investment more scope to spend on infrastructure could help them catch up faster, but he separated that issue from Williams’ current form.

“I think the underperformance of this year has nothing to do with that,” he said. “We completely missed the new set of regulations and we got it really wrong with this year’s concept of the car and aerodynamics and the timing of it,” he explained.

Sainz said a budget-cap allowance for infrastructure investment could help Williams and other teams recover from past under-investment more quickly. “But if you want Williams to catch up quicker, or Williams or other teams with under-investment for many years to catch up quicker, we need allowance from the budget cap to be able to invest on it. So it’s simple.”

“I don’t see it’s very complicated, it’s whether the sport is ready or not to change up the regulation in order for that to happen,” Sainz said. His comments came as Williams sought to improve its results after a much less competitive season than last year.

The team brought a significant upgrade package to Baku. Sainz scored Williams’ first point in nine rounds there, although he said the changes had not transformed the campaign.

“Definitely we made a step forward thanks to it,” he said. “I think you saw it in Baku.” He said Malaysia was a circuit where Williams was never expected to be competitive, but believed the car would have been slower there without the update.

“I think in Malaysia, it was a track that we were never going to be competitive on, but relatively, if we wouldn’t have had the update, we would have definitely been slower for sure,” Sainz said. He added that the package was working, but had not brought the team close to consistent points-scoring positions.

“So we know that until the end of the year, we’re going to be scrapping to get into Q2 and potentially get a few points,” he said. Williams’ remaining aim, as described by Sainz, is to fight for a place in the second qualifying session and try to add points before the season ends.