James Vowles, team principal of Williams, has spoken out about the collision between Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz at the Dutch Grand Prix. In the team's post-race video debrief, The Vowles Verdict, he admitted that the team also bears some responsibility for the late-race incident.
The incident occurred as the two Williams drivers battled outside the points at Zandvoort. The chaotic race was eventually won by Lando Norris of McLaren, but the spotlight was on the teammate clash that forced Albon to retire.
Vowles stressed that both drivers have a responsibility not to hit each other. "They both have culpability, but in this case, I think the team has culpability too," he said. The main issue, according to Vowles, stemmed from the pitwall's decision to leave Sainz out on worn tyres during the Virtual Safety Car period.
"We tried leaving Carlos out at that VSC. The reason was that if we had stopped, he would have been behind Alex and Franco (Colapinto) again, so you're back net to where you were before, without the pace to overtake them," Vowles explained. "But that also put our cars in a situation where they were fighting tooth and nail for no points. That's not a situation we should be putting them in either."
Sainz received a 10-second penalty, which he described as "fair". "Fair penalty. I had a bit of a surprise when I went to defend," said the Spaniard. "I had really worn hard tyres, struggling with the car. When I braked on the inside, there was a massive bump on the inside of Turn 1. I hit with the plank and lost the front. I took Alex with me, which is the worst possible outcome because we weren't fighting for anything big. Apologies to him."
As a result, Williams failed to score points at Zandvoort, with Sainz finishing 16th. Vowles emphasized that the team must learn from this to avoid putting its drivers in risky situations without a clear goal in the future.
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