Report: Four points scored in the Principality

A dramatic Monaco Grand Prix saw mixed fortunes for our drivers, with the team leaving with a P8 finish

Published

07 JUN 2026

Est. reading time

4 min

Atlassian Williams F1 Team left the streets of Monte Carlo with four points from a dramatic and incident-filled Monaco Grand Prix, as Alex Albon secured P8 at the chequered flag while Carlos Sainz endured a frustrating end to his afternoon.

Starting just outside the top 10 after narrowly missing out on Q3 on Saturday, both drivers entered the 78-lap race with points firmly within reach. The first moment of drama came at lights out when Max Verstappen, starting on the front row, was unable to get away as the race began.

Thankfully, everybody avoided the ailing Red Bull and got away cleanly, with Alex and Carlos immediately moving up to P10 and P11. During the long opening stint, we looked set for a stereotypical Monaco Grand Prix with little chance to move forward, but that was all set to change.

As we entered Lap 30, our drivers started playing the team game and Carlos backed up the pack behind to give Alex a cheap stop while retaining P10. Alex made his stop on Lap 43 to fit the Soft tyre and returned to the track just ahead of his Spanish teammate. As he did so, Lando Norris was forced to retire and we were suddenly battling for double points.

Then it was Alex's turn to back up the field, allowing Carlos through to create a gap for his stop. However, he was doing so while nursing an issue, and Arvid Lindblad was able to take advantage and nip through at the final corner.

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With less than 20 laps to go, Carlos made his stop and swapped positions back with Alex as we ran P10 and P11 once more, with Lindblad still to pit before the race was turned fully on its head.

Lance Stroll found the barriers at the final corner, bringing out the Safety Car. Once the Aston Martin was cleared and we were braced to get back underway, Charles Leclerc suffered a near-identical incident at Turn 18.

This brought the Safety Car back out and saw our pair cycle up to P9 and P10 before the red flag was shown to investigate a track surface issue at the troublesome final corner.

The red flag allowed Lindblad to make his mandatory tyre change, meaning that at the restart we occupied the final two points-paying positions.

After two laps behind the Safety Car, the decision was made for a standing start. Following a clean opening sector, a near traffic jam at the hairpin saw Nico Hulkenberg hit Carlos, who was then spun around by Franco Colapinto at Portier, ending his race early after such a strong drive.

Alex was able to hold off the attacking Audi until the finish to bring his FW48 home in P8 after George Russell served a late-race penalty – our best result of the season.

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James Vowles, Team Principal:

“It’s great to score points in Monaco in difficult circumstances. Well done to Alex for getting through what was a tough race, suffering a number of issues with deployment. It was also great work from the team to execute a strong strategy to allow the drivers to be fighting into the points, but it’s disappointing for Carlos as his pace was exceptional, being right where he needed to be to bring more points to the table.

“Bigger picture, we've made progress from Japan across Miami, Montreal, and now here, and we're now able to knock on the door of points most weekends. We need to make further steps to move ahead of Alpine and VCARB but I'm confident we have what it takes in the pipeline to do so. Barcelona next, we need to keep the momentum and continue stepping forward."

Alex Albon:

“Tough afternoon overall but it's good to get a few points. We were quick at the beginning of the race, and then from Lap 15 onwards we were managing a deployment issue that we couldn't fix, unfortunately. We were playing some team games trying to build a gap for both Carlos and me, but it made us vulnerable with track position.

“I was trying to defend against Lindblad but couldn't hold him off as I was losing time down the straights managing our issue. It was a messy race with the red flag and restarts, but ultimately, I think this has been my cleanest race weekend this year and I felt more in the rhythm and in tune with the car. We'll debrief, reset, spend some time in the sim, and go again in Barcelona next weekend.”

Carlos Sainz:

"We had managed the race well and I had very good pace in general until the red flag and restart. It’s difficult to digest getting hit in that corner on a restart to be honest, but there is nothing I could do unfortunately.

“It’s frustrating to end the weekend like that and to throw away points, especially after the team have worked so hard to develop the car and move us forward into point scoring positions more consistently. Yeah, it’s frustrating, but we’ll try to look at the positives and go again in Barcelona."

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