Sainz en Albon leggen uit waarom ze bij Williams zijn gebleven.
A late, overweight car with no downforce. Sainz calls 2026 a perfect storm and re-signed anyway, while Albon wants to see the reaction before he commits any further.
Williams have spent the week talking about time, and about how little of it they are willing to waste. Two drivers have committed their futures to a team sitting ninth in the championship, and the man who runs it keeps repeating that none of this was ever going to be quick.
Carlos Sainz put the season into a single phrase on the Thursday of the Dutch Grand Prix. "The reality is that this year has turned out to be the perfect storm of all the problems possible," he said. "We've come up with a car that is late, a car that is overweight and a car without downforce, which in F1 terms is everything that you want to achieve in a car."
Sainz on why he re-signed
That is an unusually blunt inventory from a driver who had just agreed to stay. Sainz aangekomen vanaf Ferrari after being convinced by James Vowles' pitch, and two podiums in 2025 lifted expectations that 2026 has comprehensively failed to meet. He was candid about that too, saying last year "probably lifted my expectations for this year".
His reasoning for signing again was less about the car than about timing. "We got the principles wrong," he said. "As a team, I want to make sure that it doesn't happen again, but at the same time, I'm not going to leave in a project that I believe the driver is a fundamental part of, showing commitment to all the workers, all the 1,000 people behind the scenes."
He was sharper still on the idea of walking away. "I don't think it's part of my character to jump ships when the situation is also at its worst," he said. "The first time there is a bump on the road, a big bump, probably bigger than anyone could have imagined after the podiums of last year. I don't think it's part of my way of being to jump ships at the first possible opportunity."
Albon signs for one year only
Alex Albon's position is deliberately different, and the difference is the interesting part. Sainz signed a multi-year deal. Albon's announcement covers 2027 and no further, and he has been open about why.
"I want to see a reaction, I want to see what the team can deliver, I want to see a strong bounce back from this year," he said.
Albon has been at Williams since 2022, passed Nigel Mansell for the most F1 starts in the team's colours, and reached his 100th race with them at the Hongaarse grand prix. That tenure is exactly why his caution carries weight. "I would say I have one of the better ideas out of most people because I've been with the team for such a long amount of time," he said, "and for me this year has been a bit more of the anomaly than the previous years."
He has also been let inside the post-mortem. "I've been brought into a more deeper analysis of where it went wrong from last year to this year," he said. "So why were we late? Why was the car overweight? What were the reasons? Why did we miss the trick on even the philosophy of the car for example? And I think in my head I'm satisfied with what those reasons are, as simple as that really."
Satisfied with the diagnosis, in other words, but waiting on the cure. Albon went further than most drivers would in public about what that costs him now: "the best chance we have of that is to also sacrifice this year and focus on next year's car, and that's possibly something which is frustrating behind the wheel, frustrating for all of us back at the factory."
Vowles and the three-year clock
James Vowles sat down separately with Alan Murray of the WSJ Leadership Institute and made the same argument from the other side of the garage. Decisions about people, structure and processes take roughly three years to show up in results, which is an awkward thing to tell a fanbase whose team last won a race in Spain in 2012. His stated target for returning Williams to championship contention is 2030.
What he said about failure explains the tolerance he is asking for. "Some of the best things I've done in my life is frankly to fail and then to learn from it," he said. "It's the second bit that's really important." On this season specifically, speaking in July, he said the push to get on the front foot "exposed a lot of weaknesses that I'm pleased they're exposed. We have to do that."
His description of how he wants the team to talk to him is the sharpest line of the lot. "Brutal honesty, candidness, no politics. I don't want a single yes person around me. You tell me what really is going on."
Madrid and a second Monza run
Two smaller items sit alongside the contracts. The Williams Fan Zone goes to Madrid for the first time, running 7 to 13 September at Plaza del Callao with free entry all race week, with Sainz appearing alongside Vowles and reserve driver Luke Browning.
Browning also takes over Albon's car for FP1 at Monza, his second FP1 outing of the season. He was originally due to run at Barcelona and in Austria, but an electrical issue kept him out in Spain. He debuted in Austria instead, finishing P18 and ending the session three tenths off Albon's pace. He goes out at 12:30 local time on 4 September.
Zie ook: Sainz zegt dat Williams niet langer tegen Aston Martin kan vechten.
