Williams’ difficult start to the 2026 Formula 1 season continued at the Austrian Grand Prix, where Carlos Sainz delivered one of his strongest criticisms yet of the FW48. After another disappointing weekend at the Red Bull Ring, the Spanish driver admitted the team currently lacks the reliability, pace and overall competitiveness needed to challenge for points.
Eight races into the championship, Williams has yet to overcome the problems that have plagued its latest car since pre-season. Although the Grove-based squad had planned to address some of its weaknesses early in the campaign, progress has been slower than expected, leaving both drivers struggling near the back of the field.
FW48 still paying the price for its troubled development
The Williams FW48 began the season carrying more weight than originally planned. The situation worsened after the car failed an early FIA crash test, forcing the team to reinforce several structural components before receiving final homologation.
Williams initially intended to reduce the car’s weight during the opening three or four races of the season. However, with two Grands Prix cancelled, that development schedule was pushed back, and the FW48 continues to disappoint.
It is increasingly clear that the car’s problems extend well beyond excess weight. The Austrian Grand Prix once again highlighted how difficult the overall package remains.
Williams qualified as the third-slowest team at Spielberg before enduring another disappointing race. Alexander Albon crossed the finish line in second-last place, ahead of only Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, while Carlos Sainz was forced to retire before the chequered flag.
Although the Spaniard had been producing a respectable race until his retirement, he refused to take any comfort from the result when speaking afterwards.
“Let’s not fool ourselves. It’s a positive result only if you look at it in the context of the performance level we have at the moment, which is very poor. It’s positive because this weekend I didn’t feel comfortable with the car, then I changed a couple of things before qualifying and a few more before the race, and that brought me back to the feeling I had in Barcelona and in the previous races, where I felt comfortable, at least considering the limited performance we have,” the Madrid-born driver said after the race at Spielberg.
“So, at least from that point of view, I feel reassured. But I hope this is the last of these really negative weekends where everything went wrong. Because, in the end, we don’t have reliability, we don’t have pace and we don’t have a car capable of scoring points. We’ll just have to wait and see whether things improve at Silverstone.”
Another reliability concern raises fresh questions
Williams also left Austria investigating another reliability issue, this time involving the Mercedes power unit rather than the FW48 chassis itself.
“It all happened suddenly. Everything simply switched off,” Carlos Sainz said while describing the failure that forced him to retire from the race.
Onboard footage clearly showed the steering wheel display on Carlos Sainz’s FW48 going completely blank before the car immediately shut down. With no power available, the Spaniard was forced to pull over near the pit wall, prompting Race Control to deploy the Virtual Safety Car.
Williams has yet to officially confirm the exact cause of the retirement, describing it only as an electrical failure. However, based on the way the incident unfolded, it is possible that the problem originated from the battery.
If that proves to be the case, it would represent yet another issue involving the battery component of the Mercedes power unit, adding to a growing list of reliability concerns that have affected the manufacturer’s customer teams during the 2026 Formula 1 season.
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