Carlos Sainz is at the top of his form in Williams, but had a weekend to forget at the Australian Grand Prix. However, even after crashing out of the race, the Spaniard did not stop his contributions to the team.
Carlos Sainz spun out of the race on Lap 1, but instead of being down, he assisted Alex Albon secure a P5 from outside the car, and score valuable points at the Australian Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz strategic masterclass helped Albon to P5
According to team principal James Vowles, Alex Albon’s scoring position resulted from the British driver’s skillful drive and Sainz’s strategic suggestions.
“No result is the result of one person individually, it’s the result of the team performing,” Vowles said. “The pit stops were on point, the strategy, well done to them today.
“One point to note on the strategy is there was an additional strategist today, which was Carlos. Carlos’s insight was incredibly useful on that transition to the inter.”
Teamwork 💪
JV informs us on how Carlos assisted from the pit wall to help bring home the points 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/4cTnz6JLNy
— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) March 16, 2025
“You saw a number of teams not sure, ‘can we hang it out, do we hang it out?’. Carlos was adamant ‘you won’t survive on that in the last corners’ and he was spot on and helped drive us towards that.” Vowles added.
James Vowles also mentioned that they will be investigating the reason behind Sainz’s crash but ultimately he still proved useful to the team, even without being behind a wheel.
Carlos Sainz’s strategic class is widely known in the paddock, and it was evident before at Singapore in 2023 as well. Alex Albon was very pleased with Williams’ decision to move to intermediates and had nothing but words of praise.
Alex Albons praises Williams’ strategy calls
The Williams driver was impressed with how well the team’s strategy call worked out in the team’s favor. The British driver had a great weekend at the Australian Grand Prix that saw him score valuable points, putting Williams at the fourth position in the constructors.
“I think as a team we really executed everything we did today,” Albon said.
“First race it’s not easy to be dialled in, in terms of strategy and approach to the weekend and we executed everything so well today to get that P4”
Congratulations to the whole team – a day to remember, and a fantastic start to our 2025 campaign! Well done to Alex – a solid drive from start to finish, defending against really great drivers behind him and he didn’t put a foot wrong.
We win as a team. Carlos’ help during the… pic.twitter.com/xPqO9xbUDo
— James Vowles (@JV_F1) March 16, 2025
“It’s just a fantastic start and it just shows we made a huge step from last year. These results, P4s, they’re not going to come around very many times this year.”
“We’ve talked a lot about capitalising early internally, in trying to make sure that we took advantage of rookie drivers and things like that to get those points quickly.” concluded Albon.
It is worth noting that Albon finished at P4, due to Kimi Antonelli’s penalty but the decision was reversed and Albon had to settle for a P5.
The Oxfordshire-based outfit will be looking forward to the Chinese Grand Prix and capitalize on their very strong driver lineup, aiming for a podium or even a win.
