“This Is on Us”: James Vowles Takes Blame for Alex Albon ‘Attacking’ Carlos Sainz

Williams teammates Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz seem to have been working well together for most of this season. As revealed by Williams team principal James Vowles in Australia, Sainz also played a crucial role in helping Albon finish P5 in Melbourne, as he was the one who came up with the strategy on the pit wall.

However, the first signs of tensions between Albon and Sainz seemed to emerge last weekend in Miami when the Thai driver pulled off a move on the Spaniard. Sainz was initially told by his race engineer that Albon would not attack him.

Yet, Albon did, and the two ended up making contact. With Sainz’s FW47 suffering some minor damage, he was annoyed. Sainz told the media after the session that he felt “stupid” and “powerless” as the team had told him that he would not be attacked.

“Obviously, if I’m told on the radio that I’m not going to be attacked, that we’re going to push together. Then to be overtaken, as a driver, you always feel stupid, powerless,” he explained as quoted by Motorsport.com.

#MiamiGP: Jego: “P9 for you, P5 for Alex […]

Sainz: “Yeah, that’s not how i go racing guys. I’ve lost a lot of confidence here on everything.”

— Team 55 (@Team55_) May 4, 2025

On hearing Sainz’s remarks, most would obviously blame Albon for defying team orders. However, per Vowles, the team was to blame.

“This isn’t Alex going against team orders,” he revealed in a team’s debrief video on YouTube. “To Carlos, the message was communicated: ‘Alex won’t attack you.’ And to Alex, that same message was communicated that he isn’t to overtake Carlos but only when his DRS was open and he was effectively alongside Carlos completing the overtake“.

Vowles then vowed that the team would reflect on the mistake and ensure that it doesn’t happen again. “This is on us as a team, as an organization, to significantly tighten up how we communicate to the engineers and how quickly we communicate to the drivers. What I can assure everyone is it simply won’t happen again,” he added.

The 45-year-old wrapped this part of the debrief by reiterating how the Grove-based team is lucky to have two drivers who have a “world-class” caliber. And while he is sure that the duo will do everything in their power to lead Williams back to the front of the grid, it is his duty to ensure that they get the right “construct” to fight.