It was a disappointing 2026 F1 Italian GP for Williams, with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon finishing in a disappointing P13 and P17, respectively.
It was an uphill battle from Saturday, with Albon sacrificing his own qualifying session to provide an aerodynamic tow for his teammate. The Thai-British driver initially qualified P18 but took a grid drop penalty that dropped him to P20, as Williams had fitted him with a new power unit ahead of the 2026 F1 Italian GP weekend. On the other side of the garage, Sainz had qualified P15 but moved up to P13 on the starting grid due to other drivers serving their respective grid penalties.
Despite the tough outing, both drivers left the Autodromo Nazionale Monza motivated by the improvement in pace and performance of their FW48.
Albon reflects Williams’ strategy calls need to be reviewed
While Williams went into the 2026 F1 Italian GP aiming for a one-stop, an early lap 2 red flag caused by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc triggered a change in plans. The team took a gamble and locked Albon into a bold one-stop strategy, pitting him under the red flag for hard tyres. However, Albon’s medium tyres would fall apart after 43 laps, forcing Williams to pit him on lap 46 for soft tyres. This ultimately dropped him down to finish in P17.
“Yeah, we obviously tried to go long, tried to make it on in one set of tyres. I think inevitably just ran out of tyres. Took the risk, took the gamble.”
Albon reflected on the strategy call by Williams and when asked if it was worth the risk, the Thai-British driver admitted, “It is, it is. I think we, yeah, it is.”
The 30-year-old then revealed how he would be reviewing the tough 2026 F1 Italian GP weekend with Williams. Albon compared the team’s approach to their strategy in Zandvoort and said the team would have to dissect what went wrong. Nonetheless, he was still satisfied with the performance of his FW48 but reflected that it was “just not quick enough”.
“I want to review the strategy a little bit, I think the approach this weekend was a bit different to Zandvoort so we need to understand between ourselves, within Williams what’s the difference between Zandvoort and this weekend. But yeah maybe just need to touch up on some strategy stuff but otherwise it was okay, it was not a bad race we were just not quick enough.”
Sainz reflects on 2026 F1 Italian GP
Sainz shared his insights on the chaotic race starts and reflected on both his race starts, admitting that he was satisfied with his performances. However, the Spaniard did point out the many erratic battery deployments by other drivers on the track, which created unpredictable closing speeds, leading to Sainz to describe these moments as “sketchy”.
“Probably, I don’t remember anymore, but yeah, there was a lot of starts and a lot of racing, especially quite tricky with the people cutting the battery halfway through the straight and then you have 300 more horsepower and you catch up quickly and they turn into you to give you a fright and then, I don’t know, there’s definitely some sketchy racing out there with all the different top speeds that everyone’s having, especially in lap one.”
The Spaniard also shared that he was happy that he was able to overtake both Haas drivers and finish ahead of them, as Haas are Williams’ main rivals in the Constructors’ Championship.
“But yeah, I had two really good starts, but in lap one I couldn’t capitalise very well. But from there on I had a solid race to finish P13 in front of the Haas, which is the battle that we are on right now. I managed to beat them today with a good strategy, very good pit stop at the guys to overtake Ocon and then we overtook Bearman on track. So yeah, we did what we got today.”
Sainz satisfied with Williams’ strategy at 2026 F1 Italian GP
Unlike Albon, who was put on a one-stop, Williams pivoted and placed Sainz on a two-stop strategy. The Grove outfit capitalised on the VSC brought out by Lance Stroll and pitted the Spaniard on lap 30.
The 32-year-old admitted that he was hesitant when the team called him into the pit for the second pit stop. As explained by Sainz, he anticipated that it would be difficult to overtake, considering the gap between himself, Albon and Bearman. Nonetheless, he was proven wrong and he reflected that he was impressed by the pace of the FW48 when compared to the much quicker Audis.
“At the beginning, when they told me the gap to Alex and Bearman and the pace that they were doing, I thought maybe it was a bit of a bolder call and it was going to be tricky to pass. But once the hard started to take, like I hoped for or expected to, then it was pretty easy to catch up and get by them. Yeah, we had a solid pace because Hülkenberg and Bortoletto in front were not too far away, and they’ve been massively quicker all weekend, so I think we showed maybe a bit better pace than expected.“
Sainz also praised Williams’ teamwork and execution at the 2026 F1 Italian GP. He even highlighted the moment teammate Albon had lifted off the throttle into Turn 1 that allowed him to take advantage of “overtake mode”.
“Yeah, today’s execution was perfect from everyone’s side. Alex letting me through into turn one and giving me overtake mode to give me some extra speed. The pit stop, as I said, was very good from the guys, a good strategy call and very swift reaction, so yeah, happy with everything.”
Reflecting on “sketchy” opening laps and Leclerc’s red flag
Sainz then gave his insights on the “sketchy driving” in the opening laps and admitted that it was not unexpected early on in the race, considering the drivers were still getting used to the 2026 technical regulations.
“Maybe, maybe. I think it’s always going to be a bit the case with these regs. Our first-ever first lap with these regs around tracks like this are always going to be tricky and there’s a lot of sketchy driving going on.”
He then shared that he was relieved to see his former teammate Leclerc emerge from the car following the crash on lap 2 on the exit of the Parabolica.
“We’re just glad to see Charles ok leaving the car and it was a pretty heavy crash, so I was happy to see that he was ok.”
Sainz also spoke on the disintegration of the track surface, especially in turn 2, as he shared, “It’s been the case all weekend, turn two. It’s always tarmac coming up.”
