Williams team principal James Vowles has admitted that the squad’s strategy choices during the Canadian Grand Prix were “not right or perfect”, while praising Carlos Sainz’s strong recovery drive and backing Alex Albon to have scored points if not for a collision with Oscar Piastri.
The Grove outfit opted to start the race in Montreal on intermediate tyres. But as it became clear that the anticipated rain was not coming, the team had to react quickly and switch both drivers onto slick tyres early in the race.
Vowles reflected on the Canadian Grand Prix during an episode of The Vowles Verdict on the team’s official YouTube channel.
“The race again, strong pace. Alex was performing very well until he was unfortunately taken out by Piastri, who just came from too far back, and the damage was, again, extensive,” Vowles explained.
“Now his car pace was good, and that’s obviously one of the most important aspects. That means we developed the car. That means he also made progress despite the difficult weekend.
“In the case of Carlos, it was very difficult conditions when we were sat on the real grid, and the rain came down. Both drivers did laps to the grid. In the case of both, we switched to the slick tyres early on, and Carlos just felt it was very difficult to get the temperature into it. And as that rain fell, it might have been an opportunity, being P15 on the grid, to maximise and just get up ahead. It might even be possible in those really damp conditions to find 10 seconds pretty quickly on just that opening lap.
Alexander Albon, Williams
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
“Now, the reality behind it was that the conditions started to dry quicker than anticipated. The radar wasn’t entirely accurate, and it was hard to know where more rain was coming in. But at the point where the rain stopped, that was the point where we knew it was going to transition quickly.
“You’ve got two choices. Do you come straight away in under one of those formation laps, or do you stay out and try and maximise at least some of the benefit that you’ve had as a result of it? The decisions we made weren’t right or perfect at all.
“What I am pleased about, though, is despite all of that, when we stopped Carlos, he did an absolutely brilliant job fighting back up through the order, taking that opportunity later on with a VSC to take the medium tyres to the end of the race and scoring valuable points for the team.”
While Albon retired after the collision with Piastri, Sainz collected two points with a ninth-place finish.
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– The Motorsport.com Team