James Vowles admits mistake after Carlos Sainz-Alex Albon incident in Miami: communication must improve. Carlos Sainz voiced frustration after being overtaken by teammate Albon in Miami.

Williams team principal James Vowles admitted the team will need to “significantly strengthen” its communication after Carlos Sainz expressed frustration over the radio at the end of the Miami Grand Prix, where he finished ninth after a long battle with the Ferraris. His teammate Alexander Albon, on the other hand, achieved an excellent fifth place, giving the team its second consecutive double points finish.

At the end of a strong race for Williams, Carlos Sainz became furious with the team for being overtaken by Alex Albon in the early stages, believing that his teammate, who was dealing with a reliability issue, should have stayed behind. At the chequered flag, the Spanish driver said over the radio: “This is not how you race, guys. I don’t care. I don’t care. I’ve lost a lot of trust in all of this.”

After the race, James Vowles admitted his frustration over the misunderstanding between the two drivers, assuring that such a communication error “will never happen again” under his leadership. “This was the most frustrating aspect of the race weekend,” said the Williams team principal.

“A message was sent to both race engineers: Alex had a reliability issue and needed to get more air into the radiators. However, the message was unclear in how it was phrased and whether overtaking was allowed or not.”

James Vowles explained that the former Ferrari driver had been told Albon would not attack him, and Alex Albon had been told the same—only at the moment when he was already alongside Carlos Sainz with DRS open. “It wasn’t Alex disobeying team orders,” he said. “It was our mistake as a team, and we need to significantly improve our communication with both engineers and drivers. I can assure you this won’t happen again.”

“We are truly lucky to have two world-class drivers fighting for us and who will absolutely do whatever is right for the team. Our job is to build the right structure to put them in the best conditions.” James Vowles then revealed that Williams would have almost certainly instructed Carlos Sainz to let Alex Albon through anyway, since the former Ferrari driver was running with damage from a first-lap contact.