Alex Albon feels Carlos Sainz can help ‘elevate’ Williams in a way Franco Colapinto couldn’t

Williams had some good results in 2024 but were held back by a significant amount of crash damage and incidents throughout the year.

The British team finished ninth in the Constructors’ Championship but did have some competitive races on a range of tracks, which is an improvement compared to previous years for Williams.

They will be hoping for more improvement next year as they push to get further towards the front of the midfield. New signing Carlos Sainz had to prove a lot of people wrong on his way to F1 and could be a vital addition to Williams.

They have been incredibly fast at tracks such as Monza and at the Belgian Grand Prix due to the long straights at Spa-Francorchamps as Williams focused on top speed and straight-line efficiency in previous years.

In 2024, Williams became more of an all-rounder and scored points on a variety of layouts, such as the very slow Monaco and more flowing Silverstone.

Alex Albon eagerly anticipates Sainz’s arrival and feels he can push the team forward in a way Franco Colapinto didn’t.

Alex Albon is glad both he and Carlos Sainz are ‘in this together’ at Williams

Albon has been very reliable at Williams since he joined the team that last won the world championship in 1997.

The Thai driver has made some unique strategies work, such as a one-stop in Canada in 2023 to take seventh place while running a very low downforce setup, which helped him defend from Esteban Ocon.

READ MORE: Franco Colapinto negotiations with 90-race F1 team have now ‘broken down’ ending hopes of 2025 race seat

Albon should be able to learn from Sainz, who just spent four years at Ferrari, and he highlighted that Williams won’t have to spend time training rookies such as Colapinto or Logan Sargeant.

Colapinto moved up from Formula 2 to replace Sargeant having only driven in Williams’ F1 car in FP1 for the 2024 British Grand Prix. Sargeant also moved up from F2 to F1 with Williams in 2023 but only scored one point through his 37 entries and 36 Grand Prix starts.

He told RacingNews365: “Obviously, when the rookies are coming in, there’s a lot of input around getting them up to speed, and more focused on the driving side of it.

“Rather than the things beyond that: the journey that we want to be on, and not just optimising the weekends, but optimising the future.

“Carlos is going to be on a long-term contract, I’m on a long-term contract. To know that we’re both in this together, in this longer format, let’s say, it benefits both of us to really elevate the team and go forward, so that’s why I’m excited about it.”

Sainz and Albon are a very strong driver pairing, and they have more experience than many other teams on the grid.

Despite a competitive line-up, former Formula 1 Juan Pablo Montoya feels Colapinto may replace Albon before the end of 2025, which may cause disruption with more instability in the driver line-up.

Williams have a lot of work to do to challenge in the midfield consistently

Williams scored points in some races this year, but they never pushed for the top five and battled for lower positions in the top 10.

Alpine and Haas developed at a quicker rate over the 24-round campaign, and the French team even capitalised on a chaotic day at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix to finish second and third.

Williams also need their drivers in Albon and Sainz to eliminate the crashes seen from the likes of Colapinto and Sargeant which cost them a lot financially and in terms of development, as they had to divert resources away from improving the car.

The British team may now have the driver line-up to push towards the top 10 more consistently, but they need to become sharper after years at the back of the field.