Guenther Steiner has put a clock on James Vowles, and Carlos Sainz has started the process that will decide whether Williams keeps its lead driver.
"They promised us at the beginning of the season, 'We will be back; we know exactly what to do,'" the former Haas team principal said on The Red Flags Podcast. "Guess what? They're going backwards instead of forwards at the moment. All the progress is in the wrong direction."
Steiner set the marker for change at the opening races of 2027. "If it is continuing the way that it currently is, five or six races into next year, there'll be changes. You've had enough time to read your emails and improve things. And if you haven't, then you're out."
Williams go into the shutdown ninth in the constructors' championship with 11 points, having missed the opening week of pre-season testing and produced a car that was both overweight and off the pace. Sainz, who left Ferrari for the project and scored two podiums in his first season at Grove, was unsparing after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
"Bad, very bad, disappointing. I think it's far below expectations and where we want to be as a team," he said in comments reported by MARCA. He also rejected the idea that the British GP front wing was the culprit: "The front wing has helped, although a little less than we expected. The problem isn't the front wing, it's the whole car that isn't producing downforce."
Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other outlets in Budapest, Sainz set out what the season has cost him.
"There's no secret that my expectations - or, let's say, my timeline for how long it would take me to win a race again and for Williams to be the place to do that - have been delayed by a year or two," he said. "Obviously, I had in my mind a timeframe that I was willing to accept in order to help this team get back into a winning position and how long I was willing to wait to be fighting for wins again."
He has not abandoned the project. "I see what the team is investing in the future. I still see the vision of the team being pretty clear. I see how much is going on behind the scenes when you leave the current car performance aside and this still gives me confidence and motivation that we're going in the right direction."
But the arithmetic of a career has changed. "Clearly, my timings have changed. I need to readapt my thinking into portraying myself now in three to four years' time and take a decision."
Alex Albon's Hungary weekend illustrates the problem. Both Williams were knocked out in Q1, and Albon's radio question - "Why is the balance changing so much" - prompted Vowles to reply: "Alex, it was a good lap considering the car is all over the place - that's on us."
Albon expanded afterwards. "It's hard to understand what the car is doing; it changes every lap, every corner," he said. "I'm kind of having to drive the car not like a qualifying lap; I'm having to drive it like a race lap, because if you push closer to a qualifying lap it will bite you, it will do something you don't expect."
The alternatives for Sainz are thin. PlanetF1.com reported that replacing Nico Hulkenberg at Audi is now believed to be off the table and that staying is his most likely path, while Yahoo Sports reported Williams has tabled a deal worth a reported $30 million. Haas is a step down, Alpine is only marginally ahead, and Red Bull only opens if Max Verstappen leaves.
Sainz says the fix is visible elsewhere on the grid. "Aston has proven to us that if you add downforce to the car, you go quicker. So, I think we know what we need to do moving forward."
On when he answers the bigger question, he offered nothing. "I honestly don't know. I cannot give you a date."
