Sainz accepts blame for Zandvoort collision as it ends sixth straight pointless Williams weekend

Carlos Sainz has conceded responsibility for the late-race contact that forced his Williams team mate Alex Albon out of the Dutch Grand Prix, admitting that clashing with a colleague is “the last thing you want to do”.

Just days after the emotional lift of both drivers committing their futures to the Grove-based outfit for 2027, Williams endured yet another disheartening afternoon at Zandvoort, failing to score points for a sixth consecutive round.

That outcome, however, had not always looked inevitable. Albon fought his way into top-10 contention before an unsuccessful strategy call and the collision with Sainz – which came when the latter locked up on the entry to Turn 1 and was dragged back onto his team mate – ultimately forced his retirement.

'I took Alex with me'

Reflecting on the incident, Sainz pinned the blame squarely on himself, pointing to a brutal braking zone and a surprise bump into the corner.

“We’ve been scrapping for P15/P16 all weekend. The situation in the race put Alex on a fresher medium behind. I was struggling a lot already with my hard tyres towards the end of the race,” he explained.

“All of a sudden when I went to defend, a big bump in the braking into Turn 1 surprised me. I triggered a massive front lock and with that one thing, obviously I took Alex with me, which is the last thing you want to do with a team mate.”

The Spaniard continued: “Honestly, I was caught off guard with that big bump there and the braking and triggered a massive front lock that I couldn’t recover later. Apologies for that, and we will move on as a team. I think it’s just not there, the position that we want to be.”

Sainz went on to insist that Williams never had the raw pace to challenge for points, making the result all the more deflating given that rivals at Audi and Aston Martin both scored – powered by strong weekends from Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso.

Albon: Points were possible

Contrastingly, Albon did not share his team mate’s read on the weekend, suggesting the Dutch Grand Prix represented a genuine – and now squandered – opportunity for the squad. He was, however, quick to downplay tensions with Sainz.

“It happens,” he concluded. “It’s not good for the team – obviously we apologised to the team, but it’s not a Verstappen-Ricciardo Baku situation. We’ll review it for sure, but I think he maybe just locked up. I kind of tried to avoid it as well but we had damage, so we had to retire.”

“We were with Fernando the whole race and then he finished P9, so we need to understand what happened,” he added. “I know what went wrong – we pitted too early on the first stop and we came out behind a train of seven cars.

“I think we were afraid that Fernando was going to undercut us, but in pitting too early, we basically spent the second stint stuck behind a train of cars. I think if we stayed out longer, we could’ve overcut the group behind us. I really do think points were possible today, so [it’s] frustrating.”