Albon: ‘Strange’ to feel disappointed with strong Imola P5

Alex Albon believes he came tantalizing close to scoring Williams’ first podium since 2021 in Sunday's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, securing fifth and marking his sixth top-ten finish in seven races this season.

The Anglo-Thai driver’s stellar form highlighted his team’s remarkable progress this year, while teammate Carlos Sainz’s P8 left the Spaniard frustrated despite his car’s competitive pace.

A top five result might once have felt like a miracle for Williams, yet at Imola it left Albon wondering what could have been.

"It's weird, isn't it?" he told Sky Sports F1 after the race. "On a pure race, we were fighting for P3, P4, but that's no safety car, that's just a pure situation.

"Maybe we were a little bit lucky with the VSC, admittedly, but at the same time, got unlucky again on the last safety car. We've got back-to-back P5s and coming away today a bit disappointed, which is a bit strange to say."

"I thought I could even get Oscar"

In a race that saw him duel with the likes of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, Albon felt a more cautious approach might have opened the door for even greater glory.

"I think maybe could have raced Charles a bit differently, could have done a bit better there, obviously lost out to Lewis, and then maybe could have been a bit more patient with my overtake to Charles," he admitted.

"I was kind of honestly licking my lips, I thought I could even get Oscar up in front as well, such was the pace and the new tyres we had on the car."

It wasn’t a fantasy – the Williams FW46 has proven to be a rocket on certain circuits, with Albon scoring points in six of the first seven races, including three top-five finishes.

That’s an astonishing turnaround for a team that left Imola last year still searching for its first point.

Sainz Unhappy with “Too Early” Pit Call

While Albon had the late-race pace to threaten the front-runners, Carlos Sainz was left nursing frustration over a strategy that dropped him from a strong position to a recovery drive through traffic.

“Obviously a bit unhappy right now after another weekend where we have good pace, strong enough to score a top five today,” Sainz said.

“We were quicker than Mercedes, quicker than Ferrari. I honestly felt really good out there the whole weekend. But for some reason, we don’t seem to catch a break on Sundays with the race execution.

“We pitted really early, [I] felt too early at the time and it obviously was too early in the end. We just need to keep making steps forward in understanding each other on Sundays as, at the moment, it is costing us a lot of points.”

Sainz started ahead of Albon and looked on for another big result after a run of top-10 finishes. But an aggressive early stop and the domino effect of others going longer landed him in a DRS train that choked his pace until a late-race rally helped salvage P8.

Despite finishing behind his teammate, Sainz remained optimistic about the car’s potential — even if the execution has so far limited what’s possible on race day.

• Read also: F1i Driver Ratings for the 2025 Emilia Romagna GP

“It is strange as, if you had told me a few races ago let alone a year ago, that we would be fighting Mercedes and Ferrari on pure pace at these tracks and that I would be upset with a P8, I would be very happy,” he said.

“But now the reality is that we had a car the last two weekends to beat them and we haven’t. And this obviously doesn’t make me very happy as I know we have the potential and the speed to beat these teams in these sort of tracks."

With Williams now consistently dueling Ferrari and Mercedes, their long-hyped 2025 revival is definitely more than marketing fluff. It’s real – but so are the growing pains.

Sainz summed it up best: “It just means as a team we need to improve, we need to keep making our understanding of each other even better to make sure on Sundays we don’t overcomplicate things.

“And today, I didn’t expect to have to fight back from P15 to P8, which made my life difficult but we managed to do it.”

For Albon, it’s proof that the team belongs in the top fight. But podiums in F1 aren’t given — they’re seized. And next time, he’s hoping to do just that.

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