Williams experienced a particularly difficult Dutch Grand Prix, ending in the worst possible way with a clash between Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon that did little to improve an already delicate situation.
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Responsible for the incident, the Spaniard apologized to his teammate and the team after a race that confirmed the FW48’s difficulties at Zandvoort.
Both Williams cars were fighting far from the points when Sainz missed his braking at the first corner and hit Albon. The Spaniard does not try to evade his responsibility.
Trapped at braking by worn tires
“A very difficult race, we fought for 15th and 16th places all weekend,” laments Carlos. “I wanted to defend, I was surprised by a very big bump and I took Alex with me, which is the last thing you want to do with your teammate.”
Sainz explains that he locked his wheels with particularly worn hard tires: “Sorry to Alex and the team. I had very worn hard tires and I braked on the bump at turn 1, I locked the wheels and couldn’t stop the car in time. It was obviously the last thing I wanted to do to finish an already difficult weekend.”
Beyond the clash, Sainz mainly highlights the difficulties Williams faced throughout the weekend: “We struggled to find a good pace all weekend and had to carry out a number of tests to explore the problems we were encountering, which disadvantaged us.”
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The Spanish driver nevertheless hopes that the data collected will allow Williams to bounce back as early as Monza: “The positive point is that we found some solutions and learned good lessons for the next races, so we will look to come back stronger in Monza.”
Albon refuses to dramatize the clash
Forced to retire due to the damage caused by the contact, Albon also apologized to the team. The Thai driver, however, refuses to compare this incident to a real confrontation between teammates.
“We apologized to the team,” said Alex. “It was not a situation like Verstappen-Ricciardo in Baku 2018. We have to see what happened but it seems he locked his wheels, I tried to avoid him but the damage was significant and I had to retire. This is not how we wanted to end the weekend, but it is what it is and we will discuss it together as we always do.”
Albon believes, however, that his car had a more encouraging pace in clean air. Before his race got complicated, he was notably battling with Fernando Alonso, who finished ninth: “In clean air, the car felt good today, not far from mid-grid pace, so there are positive points to take away.”
The Williams driver questions, however, the strategy chosen by his team: “I think we came into the pits too early during the first stop, reacting to a potential undercut rather than doing our own race. This forced us to endure a lot of blue flags and stay stuck in dirty air.”
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