Alexander Albon has downplayed the severity of the late-race collision with his Williams teammate Carlos Sainz during the Dutch Grand Prix. Albon referenced the infamous 2018 crash between Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo to put the Zandvoort incident into perspective.
The two Williams drivers made contact in the closing stages of the race at Circuit Zandvoort. Sainz, defending from Albon into Turn 1, locked his brakes and slid into his teammate, who was on the outside. The collision caused race-ending damage to Albon’s car.
Sainz immediately accepted full responsibility for the incident. He explained that he was caught by surprise by a large bump on the inside of the corner while braking on worn hard tyres. This caused the car’s plank to hit the track, leading to a massive front lock-up.
‘I just hit it with the plank and I had the front tyres in the air, and as soon as I touched the brake, I locked up,’ Sainz stated. ‘I took Alex with me, which is the worst possible outcome.’
The FIA stewards deemed Sainz ‘wholly at fault’ for the collision. He was handed a 10-second time penalty, which he accepted as a ‘fair penalty’. The penalty did not alter his 16th-place finish.
Albon, despite his retirement, was quick to defuse any potential team tension. ‘It happens,’ he commented after the race. ‘It’s not a Verstappen and Ricciardo, it’s less serious than that.’ His comment refers to the high-profile crash between the then-Red Bull teammates in Baku in 2018.
Albon clarified that his main frustration was not with the collision itself. He believed Williams had missed a genuine opportunity to score points by pitting too early, which left him stuck behind a train of cars.
