Sainz frustrated by DNF as Williams' difficult run continues in Austria

Credit: Formula One

Carlos Sainz started the Austrian Grand Prix from nineteenth on the grid, and for a while on Sunday afternoon, it looked like Williams might have found something. They hadn't — but they were at least closer than they had been all weekend.

Sainz had elected to start on the soft tyre, an offset strategy from a grid position that gave him little to lose. Overnight changes and adjustments made before qualifying had unlocked something in the car, and through the early laps he was in the mix — dicing with the Haas, the Alpines, and the Audis for position in a battle Williams have spent most of 2026 watching from a distance.

"We did a few changes going into the race and it suddenly worked a lot better," he said. "It was much closer to the midfield than yesterday or at any point during the weekend, so at least having a bit of fun battling that out with the Haas, the Alpine, the Audis, getting ourselves in the mix."

Then, roughly a third of the way through the race, it was over. A suspected electrical issue brought the FW48 to a halt, ending Sainz's afternoon prematurely. "One third into the race, everything switched off," he said. "So that was it for us."

His first non-finish of the season, and the timing stung. The car had been responding. The soft tyre gamble was working. And then nothing.

Austria was the latest entry in a difficult run of high-speed weekends that have exposed the FW48's weaknesses. The car is overweight and lacking downforce in the corners that matter most at circuits like the Red Bull Ring — traits that have cost Sainz and the team repeatedly since the new regulations came in. He was candid about where things stand.

"It's still not good enough," he said. "What I had today was a car that was closer to Barcelona and the rest of the year where I felt more comfortable with. But we've had a run of very poor weekends in these high-speed, hot tracks and we start to need an upgrade."

That upgrade is coming. Williams have a significant package planned for Silverstone, and Sainz is pinning his hopes on it reversing a run that has left the team eighth in the constructors' championship with just eleven points from eight rounds. For a driver of his calibre, it cannot come soon enough.