Sainz v Albon ‘politics’ questioned as Williams boss sets out expectations
Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz will be team-mates at Williams in 2025.
Williams’ new driver pairing of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon won’t degenerate into political in-fighting as James Vowles is convinced they’ll work together to drive the team forward.
Four years into his Williams’ stint and Albon is onto team-mate number four having said goodbye to Nicholas Latifi, Logan Sargeant and more recently Franco Colapinto.
Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon: harmony or in-fighting?
This season he’s up against four-time Grand Prix winner Sainz, who has joined the team on a multi-year contract having been dropped by Ferrari to make room for Lewis Hamilton.
Sainz, though, is not joining Williams as a stepping stone in a return to a front-running team, the Spaniard wants to make Williams that team.
But with Albon having been team leader for the past three seasons, it begs the question are Williams in for a season of political in-fighting?
Team principal Vowles says no.
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“One of the elements that are great with Carlos and Alex is that neither one has any politics, they don’t have a political bone, they just want the car to be quick and they want to perform the best that we can within that environment,” he told Motorsport.com.
“They both know the challenges of ’25, but the real crux of it is looking forward to what we have in 2026 together. So what I’m expecting is insights into where we’re strong during the week to what I already believe and what Alex already believes.
“What I’m expecting is leadership that with just a few words is able to lead the team in the right direction as we’re moving forward as an organisation. What I’m expecting is an individual that will give me everything when any given race begins, because we’re here to make this team successful.”
It’s fair to say that barring Colapinto’s early races with Williams, Sainz’s arrival will be the first time since joining Williams from Red Bull that Albon will be pushed.
Vowles revealed that rather than avoid the challenge, Albon actually encouraged him to sign Sainz.
“What I love about Alex is he’s a leader,” he said. “When things get difficult, he pulls forward, irrespective of what the circumstances are, and lifts the team back up to emotional strength.
“He was the one encouraging us to get Carlos into the building because he’s not worried about a challenge, he wants us to be successful.
“He’s had a frustrating year himself. Reflecting on all that, Alex is the driver that I know he can be and I think next year he’ll reset, start again and he’ll be strong from the beginning.”
As for Sainz, despite that Spaniard’s occasional clashes that left Charles Leclerc fuming during their time together at Ferrari, he believes the 30-year-old is a hard, but clean racer who will respect his team-mate.
“What I see with Carlos, does he fight hard?” Vowles said. “Yes. But is it clean? Also yes. It’s very clean racing. They’re not doing it by knocking the wheels off each other’s cars. They’re doing it by, if one of them is faster than the other one, they can race.
“And we’re in that situation as well. What I’ve always had a rule of is, it’s fair to race. It’s no problem to race, but you don’t hit each other, you don’t push each other off track. You do it as a sportsman, you do it clean, respecting the brand that you’re representing.
“When I look at [Sainz and Leclerc], there was some radio jibber-jabber across the last few races. That’s normal. One driver will always be frustrated by what it is.
“But as long as you create the right environment where they know this is the way we can race each other… And there will be points where I say, you can’t. We need to bring this result home. Because the result is more important than where you individually finish. That’s a very different situation to be dealing with.
“But if you have two drivers pushing each other, it’s typically that you’re getting the absolute most out of them. What is great about Carlos is, despite his future being different to what it is today, you’re seeing Carlos fight for everything. And that’s one of the strengths he has.”
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