Why Williams is taking the blame for Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon Dutch GP crash
Williams explains its role in the collision between Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
Williams Formula 1 team principal James Vowles says his side must take some responsibility for the collision between Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Sainz and Albon came to blows in the closing stages of the Zandvoort race while battling for a position outside of the points. Sainz moved to the inside of Turn 1 to defend from Albon but the pair clashed after the Spaniard locked up.
The contact caused race-ending damage for Albon, while Sainz was forced to pit for repairs. Sainz was also hit with a 10-second penalty for the incident which the stewards deemed him to be “wholly” at fault for.
But Vowles admitted that Williams has to shoulder some of the blame for the coming together.
"As you saw, Alex and Carlos came together on track," Vowles said in the team’s post-race video debrief, The Vowles Verdict.
"There's a lot of questions around whose fault it is, whose isn't it? I'll start with this. I think with our two drivers, both have a responsibility to not hit each other.
"It's hard to do it as a majority to one or the other, but both have a culpability in that. This particular circumstance, actually, I think we as a team have a culpability.
"We tried leaving Carlos out at that VSC. The reason why was because had we stopped, he would have been behind Alex and Franco anyway. So you're back net to where you would have been before, without the pace to be able to overtake them.
"But that said, this also put our cars into a situation where they were fighting tooth and nail for no points on track. That's not a situation we should be putting them in either.”
Sainz apologised for causing the clash, while Albon was quick to downplay the collision, insisting it was “not a Verstappen and Ricciardo” - referring to the former Red Bull team-mate’s total wipeout crash at the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
"It's not a Verstappen and Ricciardo, it's less serious than that,” Albon said.
“It was simply on him. I saw him lock up, so I immediately tried to follow him in a straight line. But we made contact, and my floor was pretty damaged, so we had to box."
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