‘Dire consequences’ await Sainz and Albon as Williams issues F1 2026 demotion threat

Williams is a team with ambitions of returning to the Formula 1 summit, and F1 2026, it is hoped, will usher in a major step towards that goal with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon at the wheel.

However, team principal James Vowles, who witnessed the entire Lewis Hamilton versus Nico Rosberg saga from within Mercedes, will use that experience to form a clear code of conduct for Sainz and Albon, in the event of fighting for race wins or more. Fail to follow it, and Vowles suggested he can go as far as making sure “you’re not in the car next week.”

Williams willing to bench Carlos Sainz or Alex Albon

Williams is a team very much looking ahead to F1 2026, when sweeping chassis and engine regulation changes will be introduced into the sport. Powered by a Mercedes engine which is widely expected to be strong, Williams could be in a place to kick on significantly from the P5 position which it currently holds in the Constructors’ Championship.

Williams also possesses one of the grid’s stronger driver pairings. Albon has impressed ever since returning to F1 with the Grove squad, while Sainz – four times a grand prix winner – registered his first Williams podium in Baku.

Speaking via the Beyond the Grid podcast, Vowles said of Sainz and Albon that “their egos are checked at the door”, and there is “no alpha between the two of them”. It is a partnership which Vowles hopes to keep harmonious, in the event that both drivers are fighting for greater honours in F1 2026 and beyond.

Asked if the Sainz and Albon relationship could require management in the future if the drivers are fighting for wins, Vowles replied: “I’m confident I can create a structure that allows them to push each other and themselves and the team, but in a way that’s cohesive towards the result. I’m very confident of that.”

Vowles knows all about intra-team battles getting out of hand. The Brit was at Mercedes – as chief strategist – when Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were near tearing the team apart with their volatile battle over the 2016 World Championship.

Vowles was asked if he would do things differently now, if a Hamilton vs Rosberg 2016 type of situation arose at Williams.

“I would do it more how we learned how to process it towards the later years,” he said.

“I think I was very green in 2014/2015. We had a structure nowhere near robust and strong enough to deal with two potential world champions, which is what they are.

“I’ve learned a tremendous amount from that. And we changed quite a bit on how we were handling things in 2016, 2017, 2018 and even all the way up until 2021. So I’ve had the benefit at the end of that journey, and then also followed by the additional learning I’ve had since then as well.

“So there’ll be refinements. You don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, but there’s definite refinements on how to work it.

“Professional racing drivers are like any elite athlete in the world. They want to have something where they know they can push the limits to, but in a way that they understand what those limits are, so that when they’re transcending it, you have a correction mechanism in place.

“And the real key behind it is think of it as creating a box around them. That’s your box. That’s when you push into it. You push a millimeter over that, on the other hand, you step into my world, and this is how we correct it. And that just gives them the form that they know, where they can press each other, press the team. But in a controlled way.

“To be clear, though, they still can be themselves in human beings. You want to be remembered for being a true sports person through and through, hopefully one that is a winner and a winner of a championship. It only takes one event that you lose the faith and trust of the team and everyone in the world potentially around you at that point in time. One event is normally all it takes.

“So the construct isn’t trying to restrict them, it’s trying to give them the boundaries where they know, as a sportsman, they can absolutely push themselves to the limit, but at least they know where the limit is now, because unguided, that limit could be in a very different place.”

Cross the line, and Vowles simply warns that for Sainz and Albon, “the consequences are dire.”

Vowles continued: “I think McLaren have this rule as well. Rule number one is you don’t take each other out. You don’t hurt each other. You don’t push each other off track. We are here as a team, and the team is bigger than the two of you. And if you’re winning a championship or fighting for a championship, that’s the result of all of us working together at this point in time, not despite the fact that we’re all working together.

“That’s sort of the core rule that you can’t go beyond. And I spoke about 2016, or my learning, my learning was you’ve got to be so clear on that, abundantly clear, that people understand that when you transcend that, the consequences are dire.”

Asked what sort of punishments would be in his armoury to sanction a world champion elect, Vowles broke out the big guns.

“The most harshest of punishments is you’re not in the car next week,” Vowles warned. As host Tom Clarkson responded with a sound of utter shock, Vowles added: “Correct.”

Asked to clarify that he would actually have that level of punishment in his back pocket to use, Vowles affirmed: “If you had two drivers that were pushing themselves, that they are effectively crashing into each other more than they’re finishing a race, yes.”

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon head-to-head in F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Vowles was asked which approach to drivers and F1 success he deems the right way. Is that two number one drivers, as it was put to him Williams has, McLaren too. Or, is the model of a clear number one, like Max Verstappen at Red Bull, the way to go.

“Horses for courses,” Vowles responded. “My goal is to win two championships, but the Constructors’ is the one that is probably the most rewarding, certainly for us as individuals.

“You don’t do that with really a large gulf between your two drivers. More so than that, I’m confident there are ways of dealing with events. You’ve got to be very careful not to play God.

“Just to be really clear, I think there is boundaries, and playing God is one of those boundaries, and that’s sort of where there’s a fine line. You’ve got to be very careful to transcend the wrong side of it.”

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