Spanish GP: All went wrong for Atlassian Williams Racing

Alex Albon:
"We lost out quite heavily at the beginning and were on the back foot into Turn 1. The cars ahead were avoiding each other, and I was the one to get hit, so we were forced onto a three-stop strategy to replace my front wing. I tried my best to stay out of the way in each incident, but we ended up with damage both times.

We need to look at this track and understand why it’s such a challenge for us. I want us to be a top team, and it’s important to put the car to the test at tracks like this so we can learn valuable lessons and optimise our car for the future. Overall, I feel like I’m in a good rhythm with the car and I’m looking forward to Canada."

Carlos Sainz:
"It was a tough race for me and the team. We picked up front wing damage on the first lap, which made us lose a lot of race time, and struggled with engine overheating when following cars. In clean air the pace looked better but overall, the weekend hasn’t been very positive, as expected. I want to thank all the fans for their incredible support the entire week and hopefully we’ll be back to better form in Canada."

James Vowles, Team Principal:
"Our race was over from the first lap following incidents breaking both front wings. We executed the stops as quickly as possible. From that point onwards, we weren’t quick enough. We need to review what damage there was elsewhere on the car as they were fairly large knocks at the beginning of the race.

Carlos did fantastically, keeping his nose in the race as much as possible. He could see the points in front of him, but ultimately, we lost out too much at the beginning. We knew this would be a difficult race for us coming into it, and unfortunately as much as we’ve improved elsewhere, we haven’t improved sufficiently here. We need to go back and make sure we completely understand everything before we go into 2026.

In regard to Alex, he was in a very similar position to Carlos. He did his best, but ultimately from both the first lap incident and the following front wing damage, the race was over."