Williams’ recent run of form came to a grinding halt at the Spanish Grand Prix, where the team endured one of its most chaotic and fruitless races of the season.
At a circuit ill-suited for the British outfit’s FW46, the combination of poor starts, in-race incidents, and technical woes made for a disastrous Sunday in Barcelona.
Alex Albon was forced to retire after breaking two front wings and serving a penalty, while teammate Carlos Sainz – racing at home in front of the Spanish crowd – could only manage a distant 14th after sustaining early damage and battling overheating issues throughout the race.
It marked the first time this season that Williams failed to score points, ending a run of four consecutive double top-10 finishes.
Though expectations were modest heading into the weekend due to the track’s layout exposing the car’s aerodynamic weaknesses, few would have predicted the scale of the race-day struggles.
Both drivers suffered damage on the opening lap and never recovered, with the team falling behind in the midfield battle – even as rival Haas failed to capitalize.
Albon: "It was a bit of a messy race"
Albon’s race unravelled almost immediately after a sluggish launch off the line. He dropped positions before suffering contact in Turn 1 that damaged his front wing, forcing an early stop.
From there, things spiraled as he fought to recover – notably clashing with Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson in a tense multi-lap battle.
“I don’t remember all of it to be honest, it was a bit of a messy race,” Albon admitted afterward. “We had an issue with the clutch at the start so we fell back. We then had contact in Turn 1 which damaged the front wing.
“I think there was a Haas in front that had to avoid a crash or collision or contact. Then with Liam, I don’t think they had that much straight-line speed, the [Racing Bulls], so they were a little bit diving in to try and overtake us, which is fair enough.
Read also: F1i Driver Ratings for the 2025 Spanish GP“But I don’t think I deserved the penalty, I had to avoid him to not crash because he dived in too late. And then on the second one, I tried to get out of the way, I knew he was going to try around the outside but I didn’t have the tyres really.
“But it is what it is, hopefully we’ll get it all out the way and get focused for Canada.”
Ultimately, Albon’s second front wing failure and a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage sealed his early exit. The team had little to gain by continuing.
Sainz: “Nothing really went our way”
For Sainz, the Barcelona event proved to be an uncharacteristically tough home race. After making contact and damaging his front wing on Lap 1, he endured a painfully slow pit stop and was then hampered by overheating engine issues throughout the race.
Despite a Safety Car bunching up the field, he never factored into the points battle.
“The car in clean air and when the front wing was okay was fine, nothing special like we knew coming into the weekend, but we had front wing damage on Lap 1.
“We also had a slow pit stop because of that, we had engine overheating for most of the laps of the race,” said Sainz.
“So nothing really went our way, we were stuck in the middle of nowhere. The little laps we had in clean air we had decent pace but it was too late.”
The result was particularly disheartening for Sainz, as it broke his perfect streak of scoring points on home soil – one that had stood since his F1 debut in 2015.
For the Grove-based squad, the setback is a reminder that consistency in the midfield is hard-earned and easily lost.
Despite the poor showing, Williams remains fifth in the Constructors' standings, holding off Haas thanks to the American squad’s own point-less outing.
But with Racing Bulls now leapfrogging Haas, the fight behind the top four is tightening – and Williams will need a sharp rebound in Canada to reassert its place in the pecking order.
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