Williams address Carlos Sainz chassis conspiracy amid early struggles

Williams boss James Vowles has clarified suggestions that Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were running different aged chassis during the early part of the 2025 F1 season.

Sainz has scored just one of Williams’ 17 points in F1 2025.

The Spaniard has generally struggled for pace relative to teammate Albon, who starred during the early races.

Albon qualified and finished inside the top six in Melbourne, while in China, he secured seventh. 

Sainz was perplexed by his lack of pace in Shanghai, stating: “A bit puzzled to be honest, not happy because ever since I jumped in this car I was very quick in testing so I don’t know where the pace has gone for this weekend.”

The former Ferrari driver felt confident behind a Williams F1 car after his initial run at the end of last year, which was backed up in Bahrain testing.

However, so far, Sainz has lagged behind teammate Albon.

One theory for Sainz’s struggles was that he was running an older chassis from last year while Albon was driving a new one - potentially explaining their gap in performance.

Vowles has put this suggestion to bed.

“Exactly the same equipment” - Vowles

Vowles was clear that both drivers have “the same equipment”.

He outlined that “everything is of the same specification and standard” and both drivers are running last year’s chassis which is an “evolution”.

“So a clear statement on this one, both Alex and Carlos are using exactly the same equipment, the same chassis, the same, front wings, the same gearboxes,” Vowles explained.

“Everything is of the same specification and standard.  More specifically, the question was are we running a ‘24 chassis with Carlos.

“Both drivers are running an evolution of last year’s chassis, so it’s evolved exactly the same way, but we always intended to go through the last year of the regulations making sure that we are effectively evolving our chassis rather than re-designing it from scratch.

“That’s really important because it allows us to put our eggs in an investment basket of 2026 and beyond, and it’s not a financial question, it’s time resource.

“We are all up against the cost cap but it allows us to reoptimize and make sure that we’re getting everything for 26 we can out of it. And we knew there was quite a bit of potential within the chassis, as a result of that, you can see we’ve moved up the field and I think there’s more performance to come from the package we have at the moment.

“I’d also add that I think a number of teams on the grid have done something quite similar to what we’ve done.  Not all, but most would have done.

“So answering the question very specifically, both drivers are using exactly the same thing, so the evolution of the ‘24 chassis.”