Alex Albon dismisses Carlos Sainz Dutch GP tension after clear-the-air breakfast

Alex Albon has played down any tension with Williams team-mate Carlos Sainz following their collision at the Dutch Grand Prix, revealing the pair cleared the air over breakfast on Monday.

Sainz accepted full responsibility for the intra-team clash at Zandvoort, which earned him a 10-second penalty. Defending on old hard tyres into Turn 1, the Spaniard hit a bump on the inside line, locked up and slid into his team-mate. The contact damaged Albon’s floor and forced him to retire from the race, while Sainz finished in 16th. 

Despite the incident, Albon insists there is no bad blood between the pair. He addressed the situation during an appearance on The Fast And The Curious podcast, explaining with a smile: “We grabbed breakfast on Monday. Carlos offered to pay. I allowed him to pay.

“All chill. I think people like to make it out [to be] more than it really is, but at the same time, it was no Max and Daniel [Verstappen and Ricciardo at Baku in 2018]. For me, that was important. You can tell in the media pen as soon as you go after the race, you feel like the interviewer is like licking their lips, they’re getting so excited.

“So you just have to kind of like shoulder it and be like, ‘No, we’re not going to go down that road.'”

Alexander Albon , Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Eric Le Galliot

Rather than dwelling on the lost opportunity, Albon joked that the incident meant he is now owed a free hit on Sainz in the name of team equality. When asked if he is allowed to “bump off” Sainz once as payback, Albon laughed: “I think that’s a good one. I’m not sure the team would agree with this,” before adding, “I shouldn’t say this because it’s going to write its own script.”

Albon also shared insight into their Monday debrief in Monaco. “I kid you not, Lily had scrambled eggs with caviar. I had just classic avocado toast and then Carlos and I shared some protein pancakes.

“Carlos is way too confident about his pancake game. He has a confidence that I’ve never seen anyone have around pancakes. The way he talks about how he makes pancakes, you’d think he’s Gordon Ramsay’s coach.”

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– The Motorsport.com Team