Alex Albon has opened up about his partnership with Williams team-mate Carlos Sainz, explaining why the pair openly share set-up information instead of keeping secrets on their respective sides of the garage.
The 2026 Formula 1 season has been tough for the Grove-based squad. Williams currently sit ninth in the constructors' championship with 11 points, while Sainz and Albon are 16th and 17th in the drivers' standings with six and five points, respectively.
Despite the natural rivalry between team-mates, Albon insists that the current performance limitations of the Williams car make collaboration essential. During an appearance on The Fast And The Curious podcast after the Dutch Grand Prix, he detailed how drivers in other teams often withhold data to gain an edge, but such tactics would be counterproductive at Williams.
"What happens in some teams, and I know this, is that you will find something on your car, but it won't be something the other car can't find," Albon explained. "It could be a line into a corner, it could be a gear choice, it could be a set-up direction, it could be the way that we implement the electronic system into the car. You could find something good, but you just won't mention it. You can keep it quiet to your side of the garage."
However, Albon stressed that this is not the case at Williams. "Realistically, for us, at least I don't do it, so maybe Carlos does it, I don't know," he laughed. "But because of the limitations of our car, we kind of work together on it. It's almost like we both have the same feedback with the same problems, and then we can split the cars. One car might go, 'Yes, this is working,' so the other car joins onto that. Sometimes it's like, 'Oh, this works, and this works, so we'll take a bit of both.' You kind of chop and change sometimes."
Albon also recalled the dynamics when both drivers are rookies. "I remember that happened a lot more when you have two rookie drivers and you're kind of fighting for the same [position]. You can imagine it becomes a little bit more [elbows out]," he added.
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