Will Buxton suggests Williams 2025 line-up that would be ‘incredible’

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Journalist Will Buxton has admitted that Williams could end up with an ‘incredible’ line-up for Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz in 2025.

The 2024 Formula 1 season hasn’t even started yet, but already there’s a huge amount of speculation in the F1 driver market.

Speaking on commentary for Sky Sports F1, Buxton and colleague Lawrence Barretto were discussing where the Spanish driver might end up.

Buxton suggests Williams line-up of Albon and Sainz

Unless you’re a Ferrari or McLaren fan, you don’t yet know who will be your confirmed driver line-up heading into next season.

Max Verstappen won’t be going anywhere at Red Bull, while Lance Stroll’s future at Aston Martin seems pretty assured.

Every other team on the grid has a level of uncertainty mainly because there wasn’t a single driver change at the end of 2023.

The final driver to discover his fate was Logan Sargeant after a difficult rookie campaign.

James Vowles has told Sargeant he needs to be the surprise of the season in 2024 and that’s mainly due to the calibre of potential replacements available to the team.

Buxton believes the Williams could secure a fantastic partnership with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz for 2025 if they can sell both drivers on the long-term project.

The 29-year-old has been linked with the Grove-based team and Barretto believes they would be a better option than Audi – with Eddie Jordan separately stating he shouldn’t consider joining the German manufacturer when they join the grid in 2026.

Williams have big call to make on line-up for 2025

Talking about Sainz’s future, Barretto said: “I’m not sure. I think that project is still too early days. I think when there’s opportunities at Aston Martin, Williams you could argue is a good project as well with all the funding that they’re putting in as well.

“I know that Mercedes haven’t decided yet what they’re going to do but you’ve got to keep them in the mix as well. He could return to Alpine, I just think he’s got a lot of options there before he turns to a project that maybe in five, six, seven years could be very competitive at Audi, I think there’s a long way to go.

“And Carlos is in his peak at the minute.”

Buxton replied: “I think Carlos and Albon at Williams would be an incredible line-up.”

Barretto agreed: “Yeah, I think James Vowles would be delighted with that.”

If Buxton is right and Williams do make a bid to pair Albon and Sainz together, then they would suddenly be one of the strongest line-ups on the grid.

From there, they would have to find a way to build a car capable of regularly challenging for points.

Technical expert Gary Anderson isn’t impressed with what he’s seen from the team so far this year.

They have the potential to improve a lot over the next year and will take inspiration from McLaren’s strides forward in 2023.