Vowles commends Sainz for assisting Albon's stellar performance at Albert Park

Williams team boss James Vowles offered high praise for both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz following a commendable start to their 2025 season at the Australian Grand Prix. Despite an early setback with Sainz crashing out due to a "massive power surge," Williams achieved a strong top-five finish thanks to Albon’s performance.

Sainz, instead of retreating to the paddock, contributed his strategic insight from the Williams garage throughout the challenging wet-dry-wet race conditions. This collaboration helped propel Albon to a remarkable fifth-place finish, which was briefly fourth due to a penalty on Mercedes rival Kimi Antonelli that was later reversed.

Reflecting on the race, Vowles told Sky Sports F1, “No result is the result of one person, it is a team coming together. 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. His insight was incredibly useful during the transition to intermediate tires. He was spot on and helped drive us towards that."

He continued, "The way Alex and Carlos are in the team, they are leaders trying to drive our organization forward. We are here all together to get the best results we can for Williams.”

Addressing Sainz's early-race incident, Vowles mentioned, “It’s still slightly odd, so we need to go through it more, but effectively it was just an upshift and onto throttle, but there was more torque than he expected at that point. It was tricky out there. You have to remember, he is an expert driver, and Alex will attest to this: it was a fine line.”

Williams now sits fourth in the Constructors’ Championship as they head to the Chinese Grand Prix next weekend, looking to build on their impressive start.

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