Why F1 Canadian GP was a “missed opportunity” for Williams

Williams faced a tough Formula 1 grand prix in Canada, with Alex Albon retiring due to engine issues and Carlos Sainz making it home with just a single point to add to the team’s tally – which may prove to be a missed opportunity at the end of a so-far-impressive 2025 season.

Williams’s weekend in Montreal started strong, with both Sainz and Albon bothering the top of the running in Friday practice. Then, come qualifying, the cracks started to show. The Spaniard was knocked out in Q1 after getting caught up behind the Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar, while Albon managed to wrangle his FW47 to 10th.

The grand prix on Sunday saw the Spaniard carve through the pack and climb from 16th, where he started after a raft of penalties were handed out, to 10th where he picked up a single point. Albon, in contrast, was fighting inside the points before a mechanical issue ended his race. 

“I think we missed an opportunity this weekend,” Albon said after the race, having retired due to his engine overheating.

But away from the technical issues, he believes the team kept putting its foot wrong in other aspects over the race weekend. 

“We need to get on top of the tyres and, also, we need to understand the car,” Albon said. “The car was really strong in the race. Honestly, easy top 10. It’s frustrating to miss out.” 

Across the garage, Sainz also spent the majority of the grand prix managing a technical issue in his car. Sainz told reporters that he “couldn’t push the whole race” in Montreal, while he too was managing a cooling issue that meant he had to hit the brakes “all the time”. This, he said, meant he was “two or three tenths off” the pace for most of the 70-lap race. 

“If you had told me yesterday after starting 16th that we would get a point, I would be quite proud and happy,” said Sainz. “But the reality is that I’m not.”

In addition, the Spaniard also admits that the team struggled to get its car under control early in the weekend, which left him playing catch-up through qualifying and the race. 

“It’s not the first race that happens to us that we don’t manage to get everything under control on Friday,” he said. 

“We have to learn better because it’s a few races in a row now that we cannot race on Sunday and it makes our Sunday a bit tricky.”

Then there was the team’s strategy over the Canadian Grand Prix, which Albon says would have hit his result regardless of the terminal issue he suffered. He noted that drivers who made the one-stop strategy work on the hot Montreal circuit all started on hards and switched to mediums, where he opted for the opposite. 

“I knew I couldn’t really hold on to the tyre as long as they wanted me to,” Albon explained. “I was quite forceful in trying to make sure that we got into the pits before. Because obviously you’re losing positions. 

“And I was losing three or four seconds a lap and getting swamped by the hard[-tyre] cars. We were kind of, at that point, in the middle spot where we’ve gone too long.” 

After the highs of a double points finish in Monaco, the result means the team has now had back-to-back disappointments after it failed to score last time out in Spain. 

Further lacklustre weekends for Williams could prove costly for its championship standing. The squad has made no secret of its lack of investment in the 2025 machine, instead electing to pool its resources on next year and the changes coming to F1. 

Despite this gamble, the team has a strong buffer thanks to its impressive start to the 2025 campaign. Williams sits comfortably in sixth place with 55 points – 27 points clear of sixth-placed Haas – but its pace is unlikely to improve dramatically over the rest of the year.

This means that rivals such as Aston Martin, which is upgrading and advancing its 2025 machinery, could soon challenge Williams’ tally.

Couple this with the scrappy strategy decisions and questionable team radio calls that have crept into the Grove squad’s recent weekends, and the mistakes made by Williams in Montreal could prove costly.