McLaren wasn’t the only team caught in a storm over team orders at the Italian Grand Prix. Williams found itself in the spotlight too, with Carlos Sainz audibly frustrated as the team ordered a mid-race swap with Alex Albon.
The call came on lap 25, with Sainz struggling on worn mediums while Albon, on hards, was being bottled up in ninth. By then, Sainz had already locked up and gone across the chicane run-off, losing chunks of time.
So Williams told Sainz to move aside. His response crackled over the radio: “I think there’s more to win by… guys, I don’t agree, please.”
The engineers pushed back. If Sainz boxed, he’d drop behind five cars and get stuck in a DRS train. Staying out while letting Albon through was the lesser evil.
Grudgingly, Sainz complied the next lap, lifting early into Turn 4 as Albon swept by. Albon then lit up the timing screens, reeling in Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes, while Sainz demanded: “I want the hard, it’s the strongest tyre by far.”
His race soon collapsed with a clash against Ollie Bearman’s Haas. Albon, though, turned the team’s call into gold, storming to seventh after passing Antonelli—despite what stewards called “erratic driving” from the rookie.
Post-race, Sainz admitted that once he had “perspective of the big picture of the race” from his engineer, he understood the order. Albon, meanwhile, was almost indifferent.
Albon: “It was awkward”
On his side of the garage, radio chatter was minimal. “To be honest, I didn’t speak too much. I was just waiting in many ways,” Albon said afterwards.
He explained that Sainz still had enough pace to overcut some rivals on his ageing mediums, but the hard tyre made Albon faster still.
“In a weird way, it was kind of compromising my race. It’s awkward because, actually, Carlos’ pace improved to the point where he was overcutting some cars. You’ve got to let him do his stint.
“Once we got clean air, we pushed on, and I think we handled it well as a team. I don’t think there were any issues.
“I definitely wasn’t fighting to have the clean air. I was pretty happy chilling behind him, but it worked out.”
