Carlos Sainz puts talk over future on hold whilst he tries to help Williams improve.

It's fair to say that, despite the regulations overhaul, neither the Spaniard or his Thai teammate were expecting Williams to take the massive step backwards that it has this season.

Although powered by the same engine that has taken Mercedes to seven victories, McLaren to four podiums and promoted Alpine to 'best of the rest', the Grove outfit is clearly all at sea.

Sainz is out of contract at season end, but ahead of the summer break, the Spaniard has told his management to 'do a Kimi' and leave him alone as he focusses on improving his current team.

Asked if he is already looking at alternative berths for 2027 and beyond, he replied: "Not really.

"I'm not, seriously," he added. "I'm not because I have so much work to do here in Williams right now.

"Over the next few races and the amount of simulator sessions we're doing, the amount of meetings that are being held in the last few months... I've told my team to leave me a bit on my own until the summer break, just to try and help Williams and improve the situation as much as possible. And then in the summer break, it will be obviously time to think about it, look at the options."

With an upgrade planned for this weekend, and further upgrades at the coming races, he said: "I'm trying to go deep into the root of the causes together with JV, all the management, and everyone involved to see where things started to go wrong.

"I think we've analysed and concluded that, but not only that, it's what do we do moving forward, how quick are those changes going to start paying off, and how diligent and how aggressive we are obviously in the recovery from the bump.

"Analysing all that, trying to help as much as I can with my judgement, my experience, to see what side and which area we need to attack more aggressively. In the end, it's so much information and so much going on that it really leaves very little opportunity or very little brain space and time to think in any other thing.

"I'm pretty sure there will be, obviously, conversations and information being held and talk around the paddock," he admitted, "like there's always at this stage of the year. "But on my side, I've told them that I prefer to stay a bit away from it until the summer break and help the team and help everything move forward as fast as possible because my ideal plan and my order of priorities is to stay and to continue in the long-term."