REPORT: A Tough Afternoon in Mexico City

Atlassian Williams Racing left the Mexican capital pointless after a tricky afternoon at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

Alex Albon gained five positions to finish P12 on an alternate strategy, while Carlos Sainz’s afternoon featured two penalties and a spin in the closing stages that ended his race.

The long run to the first corner always provides plenty of action, and 2025 was no exception. Unfortunately, Carlos was pinched and collided with Liam Lawson, leaving our Spanish racer with a lot of vibration in his opening stint. It also damaged to his wheel speed sensors, which would have a critical impact when he entered the pit lane.

Alex dropped a position on the opening lap but set about gaining those spots back, passing Lawson as he stopped and then Pierre Gasly on track to climb to P15.

Carlos made his first stop on Lap 18, switching from the mediums to the softs, and quickly reported that the car felt back to normal on that compound. However, with that speed sensor issue, he went 0.2 kilometres an hour over the pit speed limit, picking up a five-second penalty.

Our Spanish racer was flying at this stage, setting purple laps and making moves on both Alpines and Nico Hülkenberg in quick succession, before we inverted the cars on Lap 29.

Alex had started on the hard compound and went long on his opening stint, but began to cycle back down the order as those who had stopped earlier came back through.

After Isack Hadjar had stopped and Gabriel Bortoleto was overtaken, Carlos found himself inside the top 10, which soon became P9 when Yuki Tsunoda peeled into the pits.

Our No. 23 made his first stop on Lap 41, switching to the softs for the final 30 laps, while Carlos was in for a second stop five laps later.

The team asked him not to use the pit limiter this time, manually keeping the speed below the 80 km/h maximum himself. He served his initial five-second penalty and put on another set of softs, however he exceeded the speed limit when exiting and was given another penalty – this time a drive-through.

Once he made his way through the pit lane for a third time, we were running P13 and P15 with just over 10 laps to go.

Alex found himself close to a pack squabbling over the final point and passed Isack Hadjar for P12 on Lap 65.

With three laps to go, while coming through the stadium section, Carlos suffered a spin and collided backwards with the wall. He managed to find an opening to park up safely, but the Virtual Safety Car was deployed, neutralising the race until just before the chequered flag.

Alex came home in P12, while Carlos was classified P17, having completed over 90% of the race distance prior to his spin.

"A very difficult day," James Vowles reflected.

"The positive news is the car was very fast, but we were unable to use it. In the case of Carlos, the race was over after turn 1 and the damage resulted in both a flat spot but also damage to our wheel speed sensors, which are critical for the pit speed limiter.

"The net result is that we had to box earlier as the vibrations were significant, putting us on a two stop, which led to us going 0.2 kilometres an hour over the pit speed limit, and receiving the five-second penalty.

"When we came in for the second stop, we tried controlling it manually at 70 kilometres an hour, and on exit, Carlos still went slightly over the pit speed limiter, resulting in a drive through penalty, which we completed.

"Without the drive through penalty, and even with all the other elements, Carlos was still fighting for a point today, which is very impressive.

"With Alex, we didn’t get it right across the board, from communication, to start tyre, to how we optimised his performance. This is a blip in what has been a strong season, so let’s finish strong across the next four events."

"A bit of a slow race for me," Alex commented. "I was one of two drivers on the hard tyre at the beginning of the race which we just didn’t have the pace.

"We committed to the one-stop strategy early on which turned out to be the slower option and didn’t work for us, so we missed out on an opportunity to be dynamic and be more competitive in the midfield.

"It’s been a couple races where we’ve been struggling and we need to figure out where it’s coming from. We can see it in the data, we can see the issues I’m having with the car, so we need to regroup, reassess, and have a good catchup before Brazil so we can get back into rhythm and back into the top ten."

"A frustrating race as we had excellent pace today," Carlos explained. "Turn 1 was a melee of cars and I had contact with a VCARB which damaged the rim of my tyre, causing big vibrations on the first stint, and also damaged all the front tyre sensors, meaning the pit limiter didn’t work.

"That caused the two penalties in the pit lane, compromising my entire race. It was basically a snowball effect that cost us a clear chance of getting points today, as the pace was really strong and I was very fast with both soft tyres. Disappointing end to the race, but we’ll regroup and go again in Brazil."