Carlos Sainz looks at 2027 with caution

“There are three key areas where we have failed this year,” review Carlos Sainzat the press conference prior to the Brazilian F1 GPin the team’s hospitality, as published by ‘Motorsport.com’. “One is to have the car on track on time. The second is for the car to be at the right weight. And the third is to get the aerodynamic concept right,” Carlos commented when talking about everything that the Williams team cannot repeat in 2027 if it wants to take a step forward after a disappointing season. And above all, he placed emphasis on the aerodynamic part, which concerns him the most.

“I am confident that we will solve the first two next year. We will have the car at the right weight and on time. The third is the one that worries me, or let’s say that it is the one where we have to put more effort,” acknowledged Carlos, who months ago already made it clear in MD that the concept of the car for this course was “failed” because they had created a car that was very difficult to develop.

The team could not improve at the pace of its rivals when they presented evolutions. They did not make the leap that their opponents did. Carlos, at the time, was not worried when MD asked him if Williams might have a developmental problem.since it highlighted that In 2025, the team did manage to create a competitive car with the tools of the Grove factory. It simply pointed to a bad concept that was harder to evolve than the rest.

“I think the team would have accepted being overweight and arriving late, but performing. We would have had to improve the other two things, but I think we would all have been calm with the situation. Therefore, having performance in the car becomes the number one priority: get the aerodynamic concept right and develop the aerodynamics and chassis well,” commented on this occasion in Brazil.

2027 has been the team’s priority for months and that is why they even use the free practice sessions of these last races to try things that could be useful for next year, experimenting, even if that means not focusing on maximizing the performance of the car for each race.

At this point, Carlos remains with his feet on the ground for the next season due to the doubt that the team does not see on the track the same as what they simulate in their factory.

“Not everything that is being introduced is working as expected, so that leaves me with a certain level of doubt when I test the simulator and see the numbers we are producing for next year”said.

“Some of the numbers we’ve produced this year haven’t translated exactly as they were.”as was the case with the ground effect car. So there is a certain level of doubt or skepticism,” he noted.

Las Vegas, a remote option

Williams has been far from the points, with poor performances in the preceding races. That makes Carlos Sainz see vegas as the only option (of the four remaining races) to try to get closer to those points, and achieve them if some of their rivals fail.

“To be completely honest and direct, in Mexico we were one second from the middle zone in Q2or the positions of points. Maybe you can reduce it to half a second in Las Vegas, to four tenths, but you can’t recover a second just because of the characteristics of the circuit. So scoring on their own merits, I think, is a little out of our reach this year,” he noted.

“Scoring is a remote possibility this year that I’m going to fight for, I think in Las Vegas. I’m going to try everything to get the last points for the team,” he warned.