Vowles confident Albon and Sainz remain committed to Williams future

Vowles backs Williams driver commitment

James Vowles insists Williams can retain Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz for next season, despite a 2026 campaign that has so far fallen short of the team’s expectations. The Williams team principal says both drivers remain invested in the Grove squad’s long-term direction and would be open with him if their thinking changed.

The team expects weight-saving gains to arrive at each of the next races until the car reaches the weight limit. Points finishes in Miami, Montreal and Monaco have also offered evidence that the package still contains usable potential.

Honesty at the centre of the project

“The great thing with both is they have the same values I do, which is honesty, transparency,” Vowles said. “So we have honest conversations, all the way from October last year when I started to see problems, to January till March - and then here's what we're doing to fix this in this year.”

That openness, he argued, has helped the drivers understand both the weaknesses and the remaining strengths of the project.

“I will tell you the bad bits, but I'll tell you the good bits as well,” he added. “And there's some good bits that are still there. The development rates we're hitting now and what we're bringing to the track, the rate we can bring it to the track.”

The question of Sainz’s long-term position has already been discussed elsewhere, with David Coulthard suggesting Sainz may be assessing his Williams future. Vowles, however, remains calm, saying both drivers have told him they want their future to be with Williams.

Making Williams ‘their team’

Vowles accepted that any driver would be “foolish” not to consider a top-team opportunity if one emerged. But he believes Williams can counter that by showing tangible progress and giving Albon and Sainz genuine ownership of the rebuild.

“We have not done service to their performance. We have got it wrong this winter,” he said. “My job is to show them how we're going to correct it and fast.”

For Vowles, the deeper argument is cultural as much as competitive. He wants both drivers to feel that Williams is not simply a place they race for, but a team they are helping shape.

“Alex and Carlos have already invested a lot of their time to make this into a team that they want it to be,” he said. “It's their team and that's not something you can get anywhere else on the grid.”