Williams responds to Carlos Sainz chassis conspiracy rumors
Williams boss James Vowles was keen to clarify speculation that Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon would be using different-generation chassis at the start of the 2025 F1 season.
Carlos Sainz has scored only one of Williams’ 17 points since the start of the season. The Spaniard has generally struggled to match the pace of his teammate Alex Albon, who has shone during the first two races.
A performance gap
Alex Albon qualified and finished in the top six in Melbourne, then secured seventh place in China.
Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, appeared perplexed by his lack of pace in Shanghai, stating: « A bit confused, to be honest, I’m not happy. Since I first got behind the wheel of this car, I was very fast during testing, so I don’t know where the performance went this weekend. »
The former Ferrari driver felt confident at the wheel of the Williams after his initial tests at the end of last year, a feeling that was confirmed during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
However, so far, Carlos Sainz has remained behind his teammate. One theory put forward to explain his struggles was that he was using an older 2024 chassis, while Alex Albon had a newer model, which could explain the performance gap.
« Exactly the same equipment », according to James Vowles
Team principal James Vowles dismissed this rumour by clearly stating that both drivers have the same equipment.
He explained that « everything is of the same specification and level » and that both drivers are using a chassis from last year that has simply been developed.
« To be very clear, Alex and Carlos are using exactly the same equipment: the same chassis, the same front wings, the same gearboxes, » he detailed. « Everything is of the same specification and level. More specifically, the question was whether we were running Carlos with a 2024 chassis. »
« Both drivers are using an evolution of last year’s chassis, it has been developed identically. We always planned to approach this final year of regulations by evolving our chassis instead of completely redesigning it. That’s a crucial point, as it allows us to focus our resources on 2026 and beyond. It’s not a financial issue, but a matter of time management. »
« We’re all facing the budget cap, but this approach allows us to optimize our development and ensure we’re getting the most out of 2026. We knew there was still a lot of potential in this chassis, and that’s showing in our progress through the midfield. I believe there’s still more performance to be extracted from our current package. »
« I would add that several teams on the grid have taken a similar approach to ours. Not all of them, but most, » he concluded.
It therefore seems that it’s the Spanish driver who is struggling to find performance with his single-seater.
