Carlos Sainz has joined Fernando Alonso in questioning how Formula 1’s biggest teams can regularly introduce upgrades while teams such as Williams cannot.
Eight races into this year’s 22-race season, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren have introduced the most significant upgrade packages.
Carlos Sainz questions how top F1 teams fund constant upgrades
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All three teams rang the changes at the Miami Grand Prix, before Ferrari made further changes to the SF-26 at the Barcelona GP. Red Bull and McLaren followed suit in Austria.
The trio has also brought other smaller circuit-specific updates to the tracks in between.
Double world champion Fernando Alonso told PlanetF1.com and other media in Austria that he was baffled how they could afford to do so in the cost cap era.
After all, he was told Aston Martin cannot upgrade the AMR26 as there is “no money” given it’s going all-in with a B-spec car that could be on the track at the Dutch Grand Prix.
“Apparently, there is no money to bring upgrades, unlimited upgrades, like the other teams do,” said the Spaniard.
“It’s surprising to see the FIA page on Friday every race. Maybe they have the money machine in the minus one [floor] in the factory.”
This year, the teams are operating within a budget cap of $215 million.
Sainz says he also doesn’t understand how the bigger teams are spending so freely.
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“It is not only Williams,” he said. “If you look at any other team, I think everyone is scratching their heads at how the top teams manage to do what they’ve done this year.
“And you look at the last five races, no one is bringing more upgrades than the top teams, so this is still impressive what they’re able to do.”
But for Williams to return to the front of the Formula 1 grid, the Spaniard concedes it’s not just about spending money, it’s about investing it in the right things.
“It shows that it’s not all money,” he said. “Which at the same time is in a good way, because we know money is not the issue in Williams, and we have the budgets, and we have the investment from the board on so many things. The team has been investing a lot of money in all the facilities we have now.
“A lot of it is processes, efficiencies, work methods, and that’s where it gets complicated, because that’s where we need to get it right, and we need to analyse, and obviously also hire talent from other teams to help us understand in which areas we are still not strong enough.”
Williams has scored 11 points this season to sit eighth in the constructors’ championship, 10 points behind Haas and nine ahead of Audi.
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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