Although it helped them to secure a double points finish, Williams pair Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were left frustrated by the “messy” midfield strategy of drivers slowing down the pack to allow their team mate to claim a free pit stop in Monaco.
Williams were keen to continue their run of both drivers finishing in the top 10, which has now been extended to four races, but to do so they had to deploy some unusual tactics to keep their rivals at bay.
Racing Bulls were the first team to deploy the move, which involved the team mate further back (Liam Lawson, in their case) purposefully driving at a reduced speed to back up those behind and open a larger gap to Isack Hadjar in front.
This allowed Hadjar to complete his two compulsory pit stops with a significantly minimised threat of losing positions, as the margin back to Lawson was big enough for him to emerge ahead of the pack. While it frustrated everyone else in the train, including Albon, it was an effective play that Williams also used to get both cars into the points.
Team orders meant that Sainz allowed Albon to pass him for P9
“I didn’t like it, I don’t think Carlos liked it,” Albon said after the race. “It’s not really how we want to go racing. In the end it’s a tactical game and we had to make it work.
“The RB started it and we knew if they started it, we had to match it. It just makes this messy race. I could have brought a pillow in the car and a coffee and just chilled out a little bit, but in a weird way it’s actually quite hard to keep your focus when you’re driving around that slowly.
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“It’s not pretty but I’m glad we got points for the team. Realistically, we lost the race on Saturday and we just missed out on tyres. You pay the price here as you saw today. You start where you finish and that was it.
“Frustrating not to come away with more points but at the same time we’re just chipping away at it. I think this weekend’s been a bit disappointing. It feels like we didn’t maximise what we could have achieved and instead got a few angry drivers behind me!”
Racing Bulls’ tactic with Lawson dictated the Monaco midfield battle
Sainz similarly branded Lawson’s driving an attempt to “manipulate the pace”, but admitted that repeating the tactic helped Williams to cross the line in P9 and P10 rather than languishing outside of the points.
In fact, the tail end of the top 10 is beginning to become a disappointment for the Grove outfit as Albon has proved they can finish as high as P5, which he has achieved on three occasions across the campaign.
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Sainz explained: “It’s a good sign that with ninth and 10th, we’re coming out of the weekend frustrated. Before for Williams, ninth and 10th was a huge result so I’ll take that as a positive.
“I had a bit of an off weekend until the race. In the race, I felt quick but we need to make sure we are back on the pace in Barcelona, even though Barcelona should be a tricker track for us.”
‘Ultimately we played well the team game’ – Sainz on double points for Williams