Sainz: Williams Is Only Quicker Than Cadillac as Albon Laments Blue-Flag Burden

Williams’ slide leaves Sainz fearing the worst

Carlos Sainz says Williams has fallen to the back of Formula 1’s competitive order, with the team currently quicker only than Cadillac on track. The assessment came after a difficult Dutch Grand Prix weekend at Zandvoort, where both Sainz and team-mate Alexander Albon struggled to make an impact.

The situation was particularly stark at Zandvoort. Albon narrowly reached Q2 in both qualifying sessions, while both Aston Martins were eliminated early. Yet Fernando Alonso recovered to ninth in the race with a one-stop strategy, leaving Williams unable to match Aston Martin’s race pace or challenge the midfield.

Williams had already faced a difficult Zandvoort build-up, as detailed in our report on Sainz reverting to less competitive Williams parts after practice damage.

Albon: Blue flags made the race progressively worse

Albon’s frustration centred on the race’s traffic effect. He said Williams’ early first pit stop left him behind midfield cars that later stopped and avoided the leaders’ blue flags. Williams, by contrast, had to absorb repeated warnings while running in the marbles and losing tyre performance.

“You can't imagine in the middle of the race how many blue flags you get,” Albon said. “I literally mean that every other lap is a blue flag.”

His comments mainly concerned Gabriel Bortoleto, who made his second of three stops on lap 34 while running behind Albon and close to being lapped. Bortoleto caught the Williams in only eight laps.

Neither driver expects points at the upcoming races in Monza and Baku, despite both tracks being considered potentially favourable to the Mercedes-powered FW48. Sainz also reported a difficult weekend caused by inconsistent parts that prevented him from setting up the car correctly for the race.

Williams remains ninth in the standings with 11 points, behind Audi on 16 and ahead of Aston Martin on three.