After the F1 2026 Canadian GP, Williams’ Team Principal James Vowles discussed what would have happened to Alex Albon if he had not crashed with Piastri during the race.
Albon had qualified P18 on Saturday. While he was managing the race and fighting for points, the Thai was taken out on lap 13 after being hit by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri at the hairpin. The Australian driver had fallen back from the leading pack after having to pit to change out his intermediate tyres. Later on in the race, Piastri received a 10-second penalty. Still, Albon was already out of the GP.
During his usual post-race debrief on Williams’ social media, The Vowles Verdict, the Team Principal further explained the damage Albon had suffered.
“His race performance was strong,” says Vowles
One of the questions James Vowles addressed was whether he believed Alex Albon would have scored points from his position in the race if he had not crashed with Piastri.
Vowles answered: “The short answer is yes, I have no doubt about it.
“His race performance was strong. He had made some good momentum at that point.”
After the Canadian GP, Albon agreed with the sentiment. “I think points were definitely possible today, but oh well,” Albon had concluded.
Albon also missed out on points at the Sprint in Canada, finishing P19. He currently sits P17 in the Drivers’ Championship with only 1 point. While his teammate, Carlos Sainz is P13 with 6 points. The Thai has had a bad run of luck this season. So far he finished P12 in Australia, DNS in China, P20 in Japan, P10 in Miami and finally DNF in Canada.
Williams’ racing pace and possibilities in the F1 2026 Canadian GP
Vowles further analysed Albon’s position with his FW48 against competitors on track.
“We can’t ignore that if Piastri hadn’t crashed with Alex, he would have kept going. So that may have been another McLaren in the mix,” the Team Principal noted.
“But our race pace to McLaren wasn’t bad on that day. You can see that with Carlos a little bit later on.”
On Albon’s performance in comparison with teammate Carlos Sainz, he added: “And where Alex was positioned relative to Carlos, you can see Carlos came from far further back. And Alex was already in position on the right tyres and that soft tyre we would have taken to the VSC.
“And that would have presented an opportunity to score again a couple of points in that circumstance.
“I don’t think we quite had the pace in the car to be able to contest against the Alpines and maybe even the Racing Bulls. But he would have been right up there fighting with them all race long.”
