Williams Racing
Atlassian Williams Racing knew the 2025 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix was going to be a tricky weekend, but when both cars had their races compromised at the first corner, the task became even more difficult.
Starting from P11, Alex Albon was squeezed at Turn 1 and suffered front wing damage, as did Carlos Sainz from P17. Both were forced to pit early for new front wings, leaving them at the back of the pack by Lap 10.
From there, the focus shifted to recovery. Alex and Carlos aimed to climb back into contention during the opening pit cycle, but progress was tough in a tightly packed midfield. On Lap 24, Alex was forced wide at Turn 1 while battling Liam Lawson. He rejoined via the escape road and retained position – a move that earned him a 10-second penalty from the stewards.
Before the penalty was awarded, Alex and Lawson clashed again at Turn 1, resulting in further front-wing damage. The call was made to retire the car after the penalty was served.
With Alex sidelined, attention turned to Carlos. He managed his second stint on Soft tyres effectively before switching to Mediums on Lap 36 for the final run to the flag.
Carlos began to gain positions as others stopped, and with 12 laps to go, a Safety Car reset the field after Kimi Antonelli retired with a mechanical issue. We pitted Carlos for fresh Softs, setting up a final push from P16 in what became a seven-lap sprint to the finish.
He immediately challenged Yuki Tsunoda and eventually passed Esteban Ocon for P15. A post-race penalty for Ollie Bearman promoted Carlos to P14.
Alex Albon, Driver, Williams Racing
We lost out quite heavily at the beginning and were on the back foot into Turn 1. The cars ahead were avoiding each other, and I was the one to get hit, so we were forced onto a three-stop strategy to replace my front wing. I tried my best to stay out of the way in each incident, but we ended up with damage both times.
Carlos Sainz, Driver, Williams Racing
It was a tough race for me and the team. We picked up front wing damage on the first lap, which cost us a significant amount of race time, and struggled with engine overheating when following other cars. In clean air, the pace looked better, but overall, the weekend hasn’t been very positive, as expected. I would like to thank all the fans for their incredible support throughout the entire week. Hopefully, we’ll be back to better form in Canada.
James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing
Our race was over from the first lap following incidents that broke both front wings. We executed the stops as quickly as possible. From that point onwards, we weren’t quick enough. We need to review the damage elsewhere on the car, as there were fairly large knocks at the beginning of the race.
Carlos did fantastically, keeping his nose in the race as much as possible. He could see the points in front of him, but ultimately, we lost out too much at the beginning. We knew this would be a challenging race for us going into it, and unfortunately, despite our improvements elsewhere, we haven’t seen sufficient improvement here. We need to review and ensure we fully understand everything before we enter 2026.
Regarding Alex, he was in a very similar position to Carlos. He did his best, but ultimately, the race was over due to both the incident on the first lap and the subsequent damage to the front wing.
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