Daniil Kvyat left seriously impressed with one ‘critical’ thing he heard on Williams’ team radio at Imola

Even the most enthusiastic Williams Racing fan might not have expected the Grove-based outfit to have been as strong as they have been this season.

The 2025 F1 season has seen Williams surge to the front of the midfield battle after finishing ninth in the constructors’ championship last year.

Team principal James Vowles hasn’t hidden what his ambitions are for Williams going forward.

This season was never the priority for the team, with their resources already fully focused on the new regulations coming in next season and a chance for Williams to climb even further up the standings when the playing field is levelled.

In Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, Williams also have one of the strongest driver line-ups on the grid.

Fans have been seriously impressed with Albon since the start of the year, and he’s already surpassed his best points tally since joining Williams after only seven race weekends.

Sainz has had some frustrations since signing for Williams and has been more unlucky than his teammate, although it’s becoming clear just how quick he could be in the FW47.

READ MORE: All to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes ties

Daniil Kvyat impressed with Williams team radio at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Former Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat was a guest of the Williams team at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast, he revealed what he had seen during the race with both drivers finishing in the points and Albon challenging both Ferrari drivers during the closing stages of the Grand Prix.

He explained: “I was joking with Carlos I’m gonna bring you a couple of tenths with me to Imola.

“Honestly, I watched the race from the garage and listened to some radio comms they are very calm, very on it in critical situations.

“Everything was very calculated, even when things weren’t going well with Carlos, even I was feeling like it was not going great, but they kept calm and they brought him back into points.

“I think that they are one of the teams to watch out for in the future, they are making the right calls.

“Of course, there is a long way but they are very well organised and Carlos and Alex, I was teammates with both of them, and they are doing a very solid job.

“Alex was playing a bit with fire today in turn one! Charles today, I feel like he was driving with a bit of sporting anger and you could see that.

“Of course, he has to and Alex was always missing this couple of kilometres per hour at the end of the straight to just be slightly ahead in the braking zone, but he was always missing these couple of metres.

“He tried one lap and Charles obviously was thinking, for the stewards, it would be very hard to understand if it’s a small penalty or not. I would have trouble calling it myself to be honest.”

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James Vowles tells Carlos Sainz he’s much better suited to Williams than Ferrari

Sainz was the highest-profile driver available as a free agent last season after he discovered that Ferrari had dropped him to sign seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

It meant almost every midfield team was clamouring for his signature but Vowles went the extra mile to hire Sainz and that hard work is already paying off.

Vowles believes Sainz is better suited to Williams than Ferrari given his expertise as a driver who can constantly improve a car, rather than potentially being able to extract the maximum performance out of a top-end machine.

Whether or not the Spaniard agrees with that is another matter, and he’ll be desperate to start closing the gap to Albon in the drivers’ championship.

But things are looking rosy at Williams, and the communication Kvyat heard at Imola suggests they’re ironing out some of the issues that have already arisen this year.

Albon had to explain why he overtook Sainz in Miami after seemingly being told to hold positions, much to the Spaniard’s frustration.