James Vowles pays tribute to Alex Albon for celebrating Carlos Sainz's first Willams podium with the team

Williams Racing team principal James Vowles appreciated Alex Albon, highlighting his team's spirit as the Thai driver joined his teammate, Carlos Sainz, in the podium celebration at Baku. This was his first podium of the season and the team's first one since the 2021 F1 season.

Expectations were high as Sainz started the 2025 Azerbaijan GP on the front row alongside Max Verstappen. He was tipped to have a good overall performance in the race. Shortly after Oscar Piastri crashed on the opening lap, Sainz's chances of staying within the top three increased, and he managed to hold off P3 after George Russell overtook him.

This gave him the podium and the very-required 15 points. His teammate, Alex Albon, did not have a very eventful race as he finished back in P13. However, his unwavering support for Williams and his teammate was quite visible as he joined them in the celebrations. James Vowles, the team principal, also appreciated Albon, revealing how joyful he was for his teammate.

"Yeah, this is what I love about this team," Vowles said, when asked about Alex Albon's celebration with Carlos Sainz. "It is a team and exactly in that way. And before I knew it, Alex had literally jumped out the car and ended up just behind me. He wants this team to be successful and he was there to celebrate by our side."

This podium was extremely special, considering Sainz hadn't scored any points since the Canadian Grand Prix. He was extremely consistent at the start of the season; however, the performance wore off, paired with other issues, which made scoring points extremely difficult. But he was able to get back to form with the P3 in Baku.

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"We nailed the race": Carlos Sainz celebrates his unprecedented podium with Williams

Carlos Sainz celebrates his podium with Williams Racing in Baku, 2025 (Getty Images)

Although Williams Racing has scored more points than it did in the past five seasons, a podium was unexpected. What kept the team at the top of the midfield were their consistent finishes, as both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were able to extract the most out of the car. However, it was still unexpected for them to clinch a top-three finish.

Sainz was extremely happy with his finish in the race as he spoke to the media. He also claimed that this podium felt more enjoyable than his first F1 podium with McLaren in 2019.

"Honestly, I cannot describe how happy I am or how good this feels," Carlos Sainz said (via F1). "It tastes even better than the first-ever podium that I did. We’ve been fighting hard all year and, finally today, we just proved that when we have the speed. We’ve had it all year, and when everything comes together, we can do some amazing things together."

He added:

"We nailed the race – not one mistake, and we managed to beat a lot of cars that, yesterday, I wasn’t expecting to beat."

Williams still sits in fifth place in the Constructors' Championship, but with a wide margin over Racing Bulls. The team has 101 points in their bag, crossing the 100-point mark for the first time since the 2016 F1 season.

Edited by Gunaditya Tripathi