(Motorsport-Total.com) – “Hopefully this is the low point,” said Williams driver Carlos Sainz during the Spielberg weekend of Formula 1. Ironically, the Williams home race in Silverstone could now have been an even “deeper low point,” to quote former national football coach Rudi Völler.
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Unlike previously in Spielberg, Williams managed to get both cars into Q2 at the home race. Nevertheless, the weekend in Silverstone was again a setback, because not only did they finish once more without points, but above all also below their own expectations.
Williams brought a new front wing as the first part of a larger upgrade to the British GP. Although team principal James Vowles had already admitted beforehand that the new wing alone would not be enough “to make a decisive step forward in the midfield.”
Nevertheless, there is once again disappointment in Grove after the race. “Although we made the car more competitive this weekend and took a small step forward, others are making much bigger leaps than we are,” explains Vowles.
“We need to take a closer look at this – and find out if we are really achieving the performance we expected,” says the team principal. Carlos Sainz uses even stronger words and makes it clear: “This weekend was much harder than we expected and hoped for.”
“We need to focus on what is wrong with the car and also analyze why the upgrade did not bring the expected performance. So this is a wake-up call for us,” says the Spaniard, who remained without points for the fourth time in a row.
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“I feel like I am driving at a high level, and the team has done everything to come here with two [new] front wings,” he emphasizes, “however, we now need to analyze more closely what is going on with our car, as we are missing too much performance.”
Vowles also emphasizes: “Carlos did everything right [in Silverstone], but the car is simply not fast enough.” Teammate Alexander Albon also remained without points again after he eliminated all chances early in the race due to a collision and a resulting penalty.
Silverstone: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
But even without this incident, points would again not have been within reach for Williams, as the example of Sainz shows. This is not surprising insofar as the team had already announced that it would take until after the summer break before a bigger performance leap could be expected.
Only from Baku in September does Williams want to be a regular points contender again with an “almost completely new car” by then, as Vowles calls it. The fact that the new front wing in Silverstone did not bring the hoped-for performance is unlikely to increase hope that this will really succeed.
In the championship, Williams remains in eighth place with eleven points, but Audi has closed the gap to just five points thanks to Gabriel Bortoleto’s eighth place in Silverstone. Williams had finished the 2025 season in fifth place in the championship.
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