How Sainz’s arrival pushed Albon and Williams forward in F1 2025

Williams driver Alex Albon says he took Carlos Sainz’s high-profile arrival at Williams as a positive as the pair pushes both each other and the team forward ahead of Formula 1’s 2026 overhaul.

After losing his Ferrari seat to seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, Sainz suddenly became the most attractive free agent on the market for 2025, with Williams beating Sauber and Alpine to the Spaniard’s signature. 

The signing of a proven grand prix winner was a huge coup for Williams, which had previously fielded a series of less experienced drivers as Albon’s team-mate including Logan Sargeant, Franco Colapinto and Nicholas Latifi. 

He also presented a huge test for incumbent Albon, who responded to the challenge with his most consistently strong season to date, edging his team-mate in qualifying by 8-6 thus far. That comes with the caveat that Sainz needed time to gel with his new machinery, which was very different to drive compared with the Ferrari he was accustomed to.

Albon’s 54 points also puts him well ahead of Sainz’s 16, although the latter has faced the brunt of the reliability issues and strategy slip-ups thus far, leading to several missed opportunities to add to his tally. 

Sitting down with Autosport to review his 2025 season so far, Albon said: “I can’t complain in terms of my own performance. I feel like I’ve been able to have solid weekends and there’s never been a weekend that’s gone disastrously. They’ve always had strong peaks, let’s say. 

“I’m quite internal in terms of how I validate my own performances. I feel like I’ve just been getting on with my own job and executing well. The team has given me a great car, and I’ve been able to do these P5s and P6s; results that stand out. 

“I actually think my process and the way I work has been identical since my previous years. There have been small improvements, as there are every year, but I’m proud of myself so far this year. I think it’s been really consistent.

“I feel like we’ve gone about our ways fairly quietly, not making mistakes, executing solid weekends, taking advantages of moments, whether it’s with strategy or conditions, just being very solid.” 

Having been Williams’ bedrock for years, Albon says he took the flurry of attention on Sainz “as a positive” and found his new team-mate to be both a great benchmark for him on the track, and for the squad as a whole off the track thanks to Sainz’s top team know-how and technical ability. 

“I think it’s inevitable,” Albon said about the media spotlight shifting to his team-mate at the start of the year. “It was a fantastic signing for the team to have someone with Carlos’ experience and his speed. And obviously he became an immediate benchmark for me. 

“Then it’s up to the driver to kind of go: ‘How do I take that energy?’ You can take it positively or negatively. I believe I took it positively and I always wanted Carlos to join the team. And on my side, he was a great benchmark, because I sometimes felt almost discredited with the team-mates I had before. I think Logan, Franco and Nicholas have always been strong drivers in moments in their career at Williams, and it was good to kind of have someone like Carlos, who came off a strong year from Ferrari.” 

Alexander Albon, Williams

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

Under team boss James Vowles, Williams’ long-term focus on 2026 and beyond also helped the Grove-based squad find plenty of low-hanging fruit to revamp its development pathways, allowing it to start the year on the front foot for the first time in years, and hold fifth placed in the constructors’ table into the summer break. 

“We obviously started the year in a really good place,” said Albon, who claimed three top five finishes as part of his nine grand prix points finishes. “That P5 [in the Australia season opener] just created that great energy, but also settled everyone. ‘Okay, we can do this, we have a good car.’ 

“We saw in winter testing in Bahrain we had a good car, Melbourne cemented that. And then we could just get into our season. And it’s not been a season like others, where we’ve had to take risks and do different things in terms of strategy to get points. As long as we keep it clean and we do a good job, do a good job in qualifying, we’ll be okay for the rest of the year.”