Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz have insisted they want to see Williams make “progress” in 2025 despite the team’s attention on the upcoming regulation overhaul in Formula 1.
Williams is among multiple sides lower down the grid aiming to capitalise on the sizeable change to the technical rules in 2026 to reduce the huge gap to the leading quartet.
The Grove-based squad is undergoing an extensive rebuild in the bid to be well-positioned to develop into a title-contending team at some stage in the sport’s next era.
With that in mind, Williams boss James Vowles has stressed he won’t compromise its long-term prospects to pursue marginal gains in the last year with the current cars.
However, Albon has highlighted that such an admission doesn’t mean that Williams can’t make positive steps in external areas unrelated to outright lap time through 2025.
Albon, with the side since 2022, believes it is imperative that Williams begins to think and operate like a top team to be prepared for when it has a more competitive package.
Ask how important it is to prove that the team is improving, the Anglo-Thai driver told media including Motorsport Week at the launch of Williams’ FW47: “I would say it is important.
“I think for everyone, for myself as well. I want to see the progress. I understand that it’s not always just about lap time, but it’s also, are we generally going in the right area?
“We talk about things which are not performance-based: the parts and the consistency of the parts and all these kind of things.
“They’re huge areas which we need to improve from last year. There’s been a huge focus in those areas as well.
“So, yes, I want to see the performance, but it’s more than that, actually. It’s really seeing what’s being done behind the scenes as well. Are we acting as a top team?”
Sainz wants Williams ‘progress in many areas’
Despite acknowledging that the team in Grove will pivot focus to 2026, Sainz has agreed with his new team-mate about the advances that Williams can make trackside.
Put to him that Vowles has indicated that the target is 2026, Sainz responded: “Yes, and obviously the boss says it, I 100 per cent agree with the boss.
“At the same time, I think it’s important to keep seeing progress. I don’t think ’25 is a year to stall any progress just to focus on ’26. I think we all want to see progress in many areas.
“At the same time, I can confirm a lot of our efforts this year are going to be, especially when we go back to base in Grove, it’s going to be very centered in ’26.
“But that doesn’t mean every race we go to this year is super important to try and extract the best possible result and be a competitive team that just wants to perform better than what it did last year.”
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