James Vowles has clarified on the chassis status of both Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon, shutting down reports of difference between the two.
Following the F1 Chinese GP weekend, Spanish media reported about Williams running an updated chassis from 2024 season. The media was trying to ascertain as to why Sainz was slow during the course of the weekend, when teammate Alexander Albon managed to score well.
After a decent start in Australia, Sainz was nowhere in China. Post-race, he noted about not feeling the car as it was in Bahrain testing or Australia. In fact, he felt good in Abu Dhabi test last year as well. But for unknown reason, the Spaniard didn’t sync with the car at all in China.
The team ran similar set-up to see if Sainz can improve, but to no avail. With the media speculating about differences, team boss Vowles took upon to clarify the situation in his usual post-race debrief video. He noted that the F1 team is running updated version of the 2024 chassis.
It is the same for both the drivers and like many others on the grid as they save time and cost ahead of the big change in 2026. “So a clear statement on this one, both Alex and Carlos are using exactly the same equipment, the same chassis, the same, front wings, the same gearboxes,” said Vowles. “Everything is of the same specification and standard.
“More specifically, the question was, ‘are we running a ‘24 chassis with Carlos?’. Both drivers are running an evolution of last year’s chassis, so it’s evolved exactly the same way, but we always intended to go through the last year of the regulations making sure that we are effectively evolving our chassis rather than redesign it from scratch.
“That’s really important because it allows us to put our eggs in an investment basket of 2026 and beyond, and it’s not a financial question, it’s time resource. We are all up against the cost cap but it allows us to reoptimize and make sure that we’re getting everything for ‘26 we can out of it.
“And we knew there was quite a bit of potential within the chassis, as a result of that, you can see we’ve moved up the field and I think there’s more performance to come from the package we have at the moment.
“I’d also add that I think a number of teams on the grid have done something quite similar to what we’ve done. Not all, but most would have done. So answering the question very specifically, both drivers are using exactly the same thing, so the evolution of the ‘24 chassis,” summed up Vowles, who reiterated about Sainz being part of the Williams team.
But he agrees that the team has to make things easy for him to fully adapt to Williams. “I am fortunate to have two world class drivers in the team,” continued Vowles. “Carlos is the last individual in this team for the start to have won a grand prix and he knows what it is to be performing at the very pinnacle of the sport.
“We have a duty and responsibility towards him to make sure we adapt the car as he’s becoming more comfortable in our car and our environment. I think what’s great is the world can see that Alex is absolutely brilliant. Both, though, will be fighting for points very shortly,” summed up Vowles.
Here’s in-depth from Carlos Sainz on his situation
