{"id":197117,"date":"2025-06-19T12:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T12:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/197117\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T12:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T12:24:12","slug":"why-f1-canadian-gp-was-a-missed-opportunity-for-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/197117\/","title":{"rendered":"Why F1 Canadian GP was a \u201cmissed opportunity\u201d for Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams<\/a> faced a tough Formula 1 grand prix in Canada, with Alex Albon<\/a> retiring due to engine issues and Carlos Sainz<\/a> making it home with just a single point to add to the team\u2019s tally\u00a0\u2013 which may prove to be a missed opportunity at the end of a so-far-impressive 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019s weekend in Montreal started strong, with both Sainz and Albon bothering the top of the running in Friday practice. Then, come qualifying, the cracks started to show. The Spaniard was knocked out in Q1 after getting caught up behind the Racing Bulls<\/a> of Isack Hadjar<\/a>, while Albon managed to wrangle his FW47 to 10th.<\/p>\n

The grand prix on Sunday saw the Spaniard carve through the pack and climb from 16th, where he started after a raft of penalties were handed out, to 10th where he picked up a single point. Albon, in contrast, was fighting inside the points before a mechanical issue ended his race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we missed an opportunity this weekend,\u201d Albon said after the race, having retired due to his engine overheating.<\/p>\n

But away from the technical issues, he believes the team kept putting its foot wrong in other aspects over the race weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get on top of the tyres and, also, we need to understand the car,\u201d Albon said. \u201cThe car was really strong in the race. Honestly, easy top 10. It’s frustrating to miss out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Across the garage, Sainz also spent the majority of the grand prix managing a technical issue in his car. Sainz told reporters that he \u201ccouldn\u2019t push the whole race\u201d in Montreal, while he too was managing a cooling issue that meant he had to hit the brakes \u201call the time\u201d. This, he said, meant he was \u201ctwo or three tenths off\u201d the pace for most of the 70-lap race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had told me yesterday after starting 16th that we would get a point, I would be quite proud and happy,\u201d said Sainz. \u201cBut the reality is that I’m not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yuki <\/p>\n

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team, Carlos Sainz, Williams<\/p>\n

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

In addition, the Spaniard also admits that the team struggled to get its car under control early in the weekend, which left him playing catch-up through qualifying and the race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not the first race that happens to us that we don’t manage to get everything under control on Friday,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to learn better because it’s a few races in a row now that we cannot race on Sunday and it makes our Sunday a bit tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there was the team\u2019s strategy over the Canadian Grand Prix, which Albon says would have hit his result regardless of the terminal issue he suffered. He noted that drivers who made the one-stop strategy work on the hot Montreal circuit all started on hards and switched to mediums, where he opted for the opposite.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I couldn’t really hold on to the tyre as long as they wanted me to,\u201d Albon explained. \u201cI was quite forceful in trying to make sure that we got into the pits before. Because obviously you’re losing positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I was losing three or four seconds a lap and getting swamped by the hard[-tyre] cars. We were kind of, at that point, in the middle spot where we’ve gone too long.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Alexander <\/p>\n

Alexander Albon, Williams<\/p>\n

Photo by: Zak Mauger \/ Motorsport Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

After the highs of a double points finish in Monaco, the result means the team has now had back-to-back disappointments after it failed to score last time out in Spain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further lacklustre weekends for Williams could prove costly for its championship standing. The squad has made no secret of its lack of investment in the 2025 machine, instead electing to pool its resources on next year and the changes coming to F1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite this gamble, the team has a strong buffer thanks to its impressive start to the 2025 campaign. Williams sits comfortably in sixth place with 55 points \u2013 27 points clear of sixth-placed Haas \u2013 but its pace is unlikely to improve dramatically over the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

This means that rivals such as Aston Martin, which is upgrading and advancing its 2025 machinery, could soon challenge Williams\u2019 tally.<\/p>\n

Couple this with the scrappy strategy decisions and questionable team radio calls that have crept into the Grove squad\u2019s recent weekends, and the mistakes made by Williams in Montreal could prove costly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Owen Bellwood\n<\/p>\n

Formula 1\n<\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz\n<\/p>\n

Alex Albon\n<\/p>\n

Williams\n<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams faced a tough Formula 1 grand prix in Canada, with Alex Albon retiring due to engine issues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[6873,70939,6872,4199,72727,707,4200,79,16,15,4857],"class_list":{"0":"post-197117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-alex-albon","9":"tag-canadian-gp","10":"tag-carlos-sainz","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-canadian-grand-prix","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114710017789290872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}