Carlos Sainz ‘Made a Point’ by Leaving Alex Albon Fending for Himself After Ultimate Assist in Jeddah

Having transitioned from Ferrari to Williams, Carlos Sainz has garnered a huge amount of spotlight in the 2025 season so far. Many in the paddock are keen to see how the Spaniard performs for a midfield outfit like Williams and inspires them to climb up the pecking order in the long term.

While Sainz had his struggles adjusting to his new machinery in his first few races, he seems to be more at ease with the FW47 now. He has managed to out-qualify his successor at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, in two consecutive races and also secured his first points finish on track at the Saudi Arabian GP last weekend.

Amid that fighting P8 finish in Jeddah, Sainz also received praise for playing the team game brilliantly by helping his teammate Alex Albon finish right behind in ninth. The Thai-British driver was under immense pressure from Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and did not seem to have the pace to keep him behind without the help of Sainz’s DRS.

Sainz ensured Albon stayed in his DRS range throughout the second stint of the race. However, he let the #23 driver fend for himself on the final lap of the Grand Prix, which could’ve let Hadjar overtake him. So, why did he do so?

Apparently, the Madrid-born driver was perhaps trying to go for the fastest lap of the Grand Prix. While he fell short by almost seven-tenths of a second, F1 content creator Matt Gallagher feels Sainz wanted to make a point and showcase the kind of pace he had left in the tank.

“Sainz said at the end of the race that we had enough pace to keep Hadjar at bay anyway”, Matt said on the Paddock Project podcast. “I don’t know if Albon did. I think Sainz did, and he wanted to make a point on that final lap when he just left Alex for dust to set a really fast lap right at the end”.

It was evident that Sainz was driving slowly to help his teammate keep Hadjar behind them and secure a double points finish for Williams. After all, Hadjar’s teammate, Liam Lawson also joined this train of cars toward the closing stages of the race. So, both Williams cars were under threat of getting overtaken by the Racing Bulls.

Regardless of that, Sainz finished a whopping 25 seconds behind Hamilton, who most likely would have finished P7 even if Sainz pushed the FW47 to its maximum potential. He stated after the race that it was a calculated decision as they were realistically not going to bridge the 12-second gap with Hamilton’s Ferrari ahead in seventh.

Eventually, Sainz was happy to help Albon and bring home a solid result for Williams. “I think today, honestly, we managed to nail a very good race and on top of that managed to help Alex to make sure he was getting in the points,” said Sainz in his post-race interview. “So, very happy we managed to execute a very good race”.

Sainz has been showing his strategic acumen right from the get-go at the Grove-based team, even though he wasn’t fully comfortable in the car to eke out strong results. Albon’s outstanding P5 finish at the season-opening Australian GP also had the Spaniard’s strategic input.

Having experienced the rainy conditions in Melbourne, Sainz helped the team make the right call on when they should pit Albon for intermediate tires when the inclement weather was returning in the final stages of the race.

“His insight was incredibly useful on that transition to the inter,” James Vowles said after the Australian GP. “You saw a number of teams — ‘We’re not sure, do we try and hang it out?’ and Carlos was adamant: ‘You won’t survive on that in the last few corners.’ And he was spot on. He helped drive us towards that”.

So far, Sainz and Albon have been working well together to do the best they can for Williams. However, if Sainz were to pull off more moves such as what he did on the last lap in Saudi Arabia, leaving Albon to fend for himself, it could also potentially trigger an intra-team rivalry, which is something Vowles would want to be wary of.