Report: An unfortunate weekend at Silverstone comes to a close

Carlos Sainz comes home in P12, while a lap-one incident saw Alex Albon undertake another in-race test

Published

05 JUL 2026

Est. reading time

5 min

For the first time since 2022, Atlassian Williams F1 Team leaves our home race without any points after an unfortunate Sunday at Silverstone.

Lining up from P14 and P16, our duo had mixed fortunes as the lights went out. Carlos made a great start and was up to P10 by the end of the opening tour. Unfortunately for Alex, he dropped to P19 and, following a lock-up at Brooklands, hit the Haas of Oliver Bearman, giving himself a puncture and a long journey back to the pits.

After a first lap stop for a new front wing and tyres, Alex was almost a lap down by the time he returned to the circuit. He was also handed a 10-second time penalty.

After five laps of running inside the points, a spell of back-and-forth battling between Carlos and Gabriel Bortoleto eventually saw the Audi driver make the move stick.

A couple of laps later, similar yo-yoing between Carlos and Pierre Gasly saw the Frenchman demote our No. 55 to P12, before Franco Colapinto dropped Carlos another place down the order.

By now, Alex was already serving blue flags for the leading pack, and by lap 15 he was in for a second stop, serving his penalty and switching back onto the medium tyres.

On lap 21, Carlos stopped to switch from the mediums to the hards before a short Virtual Safety Car was deployed owing to a rogue umbrella that had made its way onto the circuit.

Carlos rejoined in P14 before Alex stopped for a third time, beginning an in-race test session by fitting a different front wing and the soft tyres.

Our No. 55 soon had Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg come through after their pit stops before making a nice move around the outside at Luffield on Bearman to reclaim P14.

On lap 35, Oscar Piastri overtook Carlos to demote our Spaniard to P15, but that was short-lived as Hulkenberg's second stop promoted him back to P14.

The McLaren never really escaped from Carlos and made a second stop that elevated our No. 55 to P13. Meanwhile, Alex was in for a fourth stop on lap 38, one which included some aggressive front-wing flap changes for data gathering.

Lap 39 saw the VSC deployed for a second time after Hulkenberg pulled to the side of the track, but Carlos' track position meant he couldn't make it back around in time to take advantage of a cheap pit stop.

As the race entered its final 10 laps, the action ahead sprang into life when an issue for Kimi Antonelli saw him fall away from race-winning contention. Struggling to keep his Mercedes on the track, he ultimately picked up a track limits penalty.

Alex made a fifth and final stop for another front-wing flap adjustment before retiring from the Grand Prix on lap 45.

Just after he came in, a full Safety Car was deployed when Max Verstappen went off at Stowe. With five laps to go, Carlos was now running in P12 and was told over the radio there was only a 15% chance of the race resuming.

After one lap behind the Safety Car, the gamble was taken and Carlos pitted for a set of soft tyres, rejoining in P13 behind Piastri.

With two laps to go, the lapped cars, including Carlos, were allowed to overtake, and a restart was briefly announced. However, this was later rescinded, meaning the British Grand Prix finished behind the Safety Car for the first time in its history.

Having been told to stay close to the pack over the line, Carlos finished within the Antonelli’s time penalty and was ultimately classified in P12.

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James Vowles, Team Principal:

"A tough weekend at an iconic Grand Prix. Carlos did everything right, but the car simply isn't fast enough. Despite adding performance to the car this weekend and making a small step, others are making far larger leaps than we are, which we need to dig into - and understand whether we're really getting the performance we expected. Ultimately, we need to dig in, reset, and come back swinging. Thank you to Alex, who, after his lap 1 incident and with no chance of points, gathered some vital data on the new package to help us understand where to improve. Finally, a thank you to all of our fans here at Silverstone - this event is one of the best in the world, and it is a pleasure and privilege to be here with hundreds of thousands of people cheering us on."

Carlos Sainz:

“This weekend was much more difficult than we had anticipated and hoped for. We need to focus on what's wrong with the car and also analyse why the upgrade hasn't delivered as expected, so it's a wakeup call for us. In the race, I had a great start again today and overtook all the cars I needed to get into the points. I tried to defend P10 with everything I had, but we simply didn't have the pace to hold off the competition. I feel like I'm performing at a high level, and the team also pushed flat out to arrive here with two front wings, which is reassuring and good to see. However, we now need a deeper analysis of what's going on with our car, as we're lacking too much performance. We'll take a few days to reset and go back at it again in Spa."

Alex Albon:

“Unfortunately, we had a bad start and made a mistake on lap 1 that resulted in front wing damage, so we had to pit early. After that, we were caught in a blue flag chain and weren't able to catch up to the pack, so we pivoted and used the rest of the race as a testing session to gather more data on the front wing upgrade we brought this weekend. Test sessions seem to sum up our season so far, but we're focused on gathering as much data and understanding as we can so that when we bring upgrades later in the season, we'll be in a better position. It's frustrating, but we'll debrief and look ahead to Spa in two weeks."

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