Williams and Visa Cash App RB drivers endured in F1 Abu Dhabi GP, but the previous collection of points was enough to help it secure good constructors’ position.
It was very unlike F1 Abu Dhabi GP for the pair of Williams and Visa Cash App RB drivers. Neither of them managed to score when their rivals Aston Martin, Haas and Sauber did so. But it didn’t matter in the end, as they both retained their high constructors’ position.
Williams ended up fifth after finishing ninth in 2024, while Visa Cash App RB were sixth after finishing eighth last year. It wasn’t the end they were hoping in Abu Dhabi, but they saw the bigger picture of the constructors’ result, which will bring them good money as a reward.
Out of the four, only Carlos Sainz looked to be fighting for points as teammate Alexander Albon was thwarted by strategy choices, while Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson had no pace. “Painful,” reflected Albon when speaking to media. “We went into the race with soft, I think actually not a bad strategy, just think we kind of pitted too late on the first stint and too early on the second stint.
“So, felt like we got on the cut by Nico in the first stint, and then on the second stint, didn’t stay out long enough to get a proper pace advantage at the end of those stints, like Lance or Nico. So it happens, I think there’s some things to learn there. But maybe I could have done better on the communication to tell the team what to do. I feel like we’ve had a tough stretch the last few races. But that’s about it.”
For Sainz, he thought Top 10 was possible at one stage but it faded away after late-stoppers fought back through. “Yeah, I think we’ve just haven’t been very strong all weekend, and with a normal race with nothing happening, starting P12 with Lewis and Antonelli behind, it looked always like it was going to be more like P13, P14,” he said.
“I think it was only Lewis that caught us and he was P8. But yeah, I was stuck in a DRS train, there was nothing exciting happening. So for us that we were the 12th-fastest car, that’s more or less where we were going to finish,” summed up Sainz, who ended up inside the Top 10 in the drivers’ standings and with Fernando Alonso also sneaking through, it dropped Hadjar out of it.
The Frenchman was disappointed to lose out on a Top 10 in the overall standings. “Yeah, [the race] went really well, as you can see,” said Hadjar to media. No pace, like I expected. I don’t even know how I placed the car in ninth [in qualifying]. So, yeah, no pace the whole weekend. It’s a shame. Yeah, for sure. But I lost my top nine in the championships, so not happy.
“It’s [rookie season] been very tough, yeah, just very tough. I can’t feel more ready to be in the main team. Overall, yeah, I mean, the season was good enough to be promoted, so it’s enough for me. I’m just, not pleased to end on a low. It’s just, I can’t care less about this race [in Abu Dhabi].
“It’s just for the sake of the team and I wanted to leave with a good note and I didn’t. So, yeah. It’s a bit sad.,” summed up Hadjar, as teammate Lawson was equally disappointed but accepted blame for the penalty he got which dropped him to the back in a close field. He highlighted that the team’s focus was to beat Aston Martin, which kind of derailed its chances in the grand prix.
“Yeah, it was a tough race,” he said. “We had the speed and we also didn’t have a very good strategy. Just, I think, more focused on just trying to optimise for P6, trying to stay P6 in the constructors’ and trying to keep the Aston’s behind. And so we spent the first part of the race patrolling and then in the end, we weren’t fast enough anyway, so tough race, yeah, that’s it honestly.
“To be fair, I moved quite late so it was probably my bad. It wasn’t intentional but yeah, I guess that’s why I got the penalty. But, yeah, I haven’t really seen anything else. It was a pretty boring afternoon. No, it’s a great result for the team. It’s what we set out to do in the last part of this year, so very, very happy,” summed up Lawson.