James Vowles has now changed his tune about Carlos Sainz amid Alex Albon’s Williams slump

Follow us on Google Discover

The fortunes of Williams’ driver line-up have shifted in the second half of the season, and James Vowles has outlined how they are planning to use Carlos Sainz to aid the recent struggles of Alex Albon.

Upon his arrival at the Grove-based racing outfit, the Spaniard struggled to record results akin to those of Albon, who was leading their charge in recent races.

Albon was the main reason for Williams’ best start in F1 for 10 years due to his strong performances in the opening races, but the consistency has seemed to peter off in recent races as he currently experiences a four-race slump outside of the points-paying positions.

On the other hand, Sainz is currently in the best form of his short career thus far at the British constructor.

Whilst recent results do not paint the full picture, the 31-year-old has arrived at recent race weekends with more pace than his Thai counterpart, highlighted by Sainz’s podium in Baku.

READ MORE: Carlos Sainz names the Ferrari victory that made him ‘most proud’ in his Formula 1 career

James Vowles reveals Alex Albon will now be using a ‘similar’ setup to Carlos Sainz

Williams team principal James Vowles was complimentary of Albon’s change in demeanour since the four-time Grand Prix winner started his tenure at the team.

He highlighted how Albon’s feedback had taken a step up and was actively telling engineers which areas of their F1 car needed the most attention.

However, favour seems to have shifted to Sainz’s side of the garage due to recent results, with Vowles revealing a change that Williams will be making to bring the Thai driver back up to the level he was racing at before.

In a recent video on the team’s official YouTube channel, Vowles said, “With Alex, actually, there’s a setup direction that we now know we need to be taking from Brazil onwards.

“It’s more similar to where Carlos is, but it’s just making sure the car is more together for him. So, it’s a good platform to build from.

“Perhaps it’s not the fastest car to the millisecond, but a consistent platform to work from. In the case of Carlos, I think you’ve seen the pace is there.

“Without penalties or otherwise, I’m confident that we’ll be in a good scoring position in Brazil with both cars.”

READ MORE: James Vowles shares what he got wrong about Franco Colapinto’s Formula 1 debut with Williams

James Vowles also highlighted how much Williams have developed their 2025 F1 car throughout the season

During another segment in his verdict on the most recent round of racing, Vowles answered a question from a fan who wondered how much change has taken place on the Williams FW47 as the season has progressed.

The 46-year-old answered, “Pretty much all of it has changed. So, even probably the most significant items, the chassis is actually a carryover item from 2024, but it was modified.

“You can see we got very different side pod entries, different ways of structuring the floor. So it was modified from last year to this year.  It’s still fundamentally the same chassis.

“And that’s been the same chassis from the start of the year, right to where we are now. That’s the consistent element.

“Conversely, the bodywork, the floors, the front wings, and the rear wings have pretty much all changed or evolved in some form or another, and you need to.

“That’s the rate of development that you can now see in Formula 1. And if you don’t stay on top of it, you’ll fall right to the back of the grid.”

The Williams chief will be hoping to continue their progress up the pecking order of the F1 grid next year, and may benefit from being a Mercedes customer team once again.

Vowles has played down talks of Mercedes’ 2026 engine being the best on the grid at this stage, but if the last engine overhaul is anything to go by, Williams may find themselves as a regular podium sitter once again.