Mexican GP: Frustrating race for Atlassian Williams Racing

By Williams Racing
October 27 2025

With Atlassian Williams Racing drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon starting the 2025 Mexican GP with a split strategy the race would suffer it's first mistortune as early as Turn one when Carlos was to make contact with another car seeing him suffer damage to the sensors at the front of his car that helped control his pit lane speed. This would impact the rest of his race as on his first pit stop he would go over the pit lane speed by fractions but still enough to receive a penalty. Carlos would suffer a repeat of this at his next stop seeing him receive a futher penalty. This would effectively ruin any chances of a points result. Later in the race his fortunes would go from bad to worse when he was to spin in the stadium infield section damaging his car against the barrier. He would retire but was still classified as 17th. As for Alex he was to start on the hard tyre but as in Austin it was found that the hard tyre was not suitable seeing him change to the soft. He would finish 12th in the race but having started from 17th his chances of a points result were limited. Overall a frustrating race for the Williams team one which we can only hope to see them bounce back from in the next race in Brazil.


Atlassian Williams Racing Mexican GP Race Review



	Alex Albon: "A bit of a slow race for me. I was one of two drivers on the hard tyre at the beginning of the race which we just didn’t have the pace. We committed to the one-stop strategy early on which turned out to be the slower option and didn’t work for us, so we missed out on an opportunity to be dynamic and be more competitive in the midfield. It’s been a couple races where we’ve been struggling and we need to figure out where it’s coming from. We can see it in the data, we can see the issues I’m having with the car, so we need to regroup, reassess, and have a good catchup before Brazil so we can get back into rhythm and back into the top ten."

	Carlos Sainz: "A frustrating race as we had excellent pace today. Turn 1 was a melee of cars and I had contact with a VCARB which damaged the rim of my tyre, causing big vibrations on the first stint, and also damaged all the front tyre sensors, meaning the pit limiter didn’t work. That caused the two penalties in the pit lane, compromising my entire race. It was basically a snowball effect that cost us a clear chance of getting points today, as the pace was really strong and I was very fast with both soft tyres. Disappointing end to the race, but we’ll regroup and go again in Brazil."

	James Vowles, Team Principal: "A very difficult day. The positive news is the car was very fast, but we were unable to use it. In the case of Carlos, the race was over after turn 1 and the damage resulted in both a flat spot but also damage to our wheel speed sensors, which are critical for the pit speed limiter. The net result is that we had to box earlier as the vibrations were significant, putting us on a two stop, which led to us going 0.2 kilometres an hour over the pit speed limit, and receiving the five-second penalty. When we came in for the second stop, we tried controlling it manually at 70 kilometres an hour, and on exit, Carlos still went slightly over the pit speed limiter, resulting in a drive through penalty, which we completed. Without the drive through penalty, and even with all the other elements, Carlos was still fighting for a point today, which is very impressive. With Alex, we didn’t get it right across the board, from communication, to start tyre, to how we optimised his performance. This is a blip in what has been a strong season, so let’s finish strong across the next four events."

Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico			Lap Length: 4.304km

Pos	Driver	Team	Times	Grid

12	A Albon	Williams Racing	+1 Lap (1:20.480)	17
17	C Sainz	Williams Racing	DNF (1:20.098)	12