Carlos Sainz explains why he didn’t want F1’s regulations to change ahead of the 2026 season

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Carlos Sainz is entering an exciting new era as he prepares for the 2026 Formula 1 season, but those preparations have not gone too well.

Williams have been building the infrastructure to be competitive under the new technical regulations. They were one of the first F1 teams to abandon development in 2025 and focus primarily on 2026.

Subsequently, many expected Williams to be fighting towards the front this season. With Sainz and Alex Albon, and James Vowles leading the operation, they have the tools to do that, but the start to 2026 has brought major setbacks.

Williams’ last major F1 milestones – Can the Grove-based squad achieve any of these again in 2026? ⬇️

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Williams missed the Barcelona shakedown after failing FIA crash tests. Williams staff were not surprised that they would not attend the first test of the season as they were far behind in their development.

Williams stunned F1 fans with Sainz’s seat fit for the FW48, with many being left concerned as to how they had not done this before the Barcelona shakedown. It is not the start to the new era that the team were hoping for, and the Spaniard has even said that he did not want this change.

Carlos Sainz would have liked more time with the previous set of regulations to adapt to Williams

Sainz took time to get adjusted to life at Williams, as Albon clearly had the beating of him at the start of 2025. But the 31-year-old hit form in the second half of the season, scoring two podiums in Baku and Qatar.

He was just hitting his stride in Grove, which is why he wishes he had more time with the previous regulations. While he is excited about the changes, Sainz would have liked to adapt more to the old car and provide more feedback to Williams.

He told sport.de: “On one hand, very excited, because it’s a completely new set of regulations, which means all the teams and all the drivers will start from a clean sheet of paper. We want to maximise that opportunity to the best of our ability.

“At the same time, obviously, I would have liked a couple more years with the standard set of regulations to keep up my adaptation and keep bringing my knowledge to Williams about everything I knew about the old set of regulations.

“But I’ll take it, it’s one of the main reasons why I moved to this team and why I chose Williams as my future project.

“It’s because I trust a lot in the trajectory that we were on, in the project, going into this new set of regulations and I’m hoping that we can do another step in the right direction.”

READ MORE: Williams star Carlos Sainz’s life outside F1 from full name, girlfriend and height

What have Williams said about their first 2026 shakedown?

Naturally, the Spaniard was frustrated not to test in Barcelona, but Sainz immediately asked Williams how he could help amid their setbacks. It highlights how committed he is to bringing the team towards the front of the grid.

Finally, the Grove outfit have hit the track with the FW48 in a shakedown session at Silverstone. Vowles and Albon reacted to the session on social media, with the former calling it a ‘milestone moment’ and the latter congratulating the team’s efforts.

It was the first time that fans and experts got to see the team’s 2026 challenger on the track, and it has some rather interesting details. Williams were spotted using banned front wing strakes on the car, which the FIA had ‘prohibited’ under the previous regulations.

Given that they were not in Barcelona, Williams’ rivals have no idea where they stand in terms of performance. They will start to know when they head to Bahrain later this month, provided they do not suffer any more setbacks.