“This Is a Make or Break Year for Alex”: What Carlos Sainz’s Presence at Williams Means for Albon

Williams won’t expect to win anything in 2025. In fact, they will likely spend yet another season at the back of the field, fighting for the occasional points.

That’s because they are more focused on achieving long-term success, and with Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz, and James Vowles spearheading the team, sacrificing the upcoming campaign seems like a small price to pay. Albon, Sainz, and team Principal Vowles were all previously part of bigger outfits.

The drivers were with Red Bull and Ferrari respectively, whereas Vowles was a big figure in the Mercedes hierarchy. All those teams have different race-winning formulas, which when combined together could create something special for Williams.

So for Williams to get there, 2025 needs to be the secondary focus with the primary goal being developing a strong car for 2026. But for Albon, there will be something far more important at play.

The Thai-British driver has never had to deal with the pressure of having to outperform teammates at Williams. He had to deal with Nicholas Latifi, Logan Sargeant, and Franco Colapinto — all three of whom did little to threaten Albon’s status as the Grove-based outfit’s number one.

Sainz and Albon become the first appendix-less driver line-up in F1 history pic.twitter.com/8N3QPLNnUt

— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 29, 2024

But Sainz is a different driver — a proven race winner with World Championship ambitions. Sam Coop of RacingNews365 said, “This year is a real make-or-break year for Alex. Carlos is, for the first time in a long time, a really true benchmark for him…” 

Coop added that Latifi and Sargeant were not good enough, which didn’t allow Albon to show just how good he truly is. “This year we can really see how he has developed and how good he actually is.” 

An interesting intra-team battle awaits

Albon joined Williams in 2022 and has since gone on to establish himself as the main man on the British team. He also saw the transition of the team from the reins of former boss Jost Capito to Vowles, who came in with the ambition of taking the iconic name back to the front of the grid.

Albon also witnessed the development of the team, contributing heavily to it. So, it is fair to say that the 28-year-old is quite familiar with the workings at Williams, which should give him a slight advantage over Sainz in the initial months at least.

Albon was the senior driver in 2024, which means that 2025’s challenger should be designed based on what suits him. As for Sainz, he will be looking to perform as well as he did at Ferrari over the last four years, even if it doesn’t translate into trophy-laden results.