Vowles expecting big Monaco result after impressive Imola weekend for Williams

Williams team principal James Vowles believes there is “huge potential” for another big result at the Monaco Grand Prix after both cars scored points in Imola.

Alex Albon finished fifth at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – his second fifth place in succession – with Carlos Sainz in eighth after an early pit stop dropped him away from the fight for the podium. Albon was fighting Charles Leclerc for fourth place and close to third-placed Oscar Piastri when he ended up forced wide late in the race and lost a spot to Lewis Hamilton, and Vowles admits the team feels more was on offer but is buoyed by what it could achieve in Monaco.

“It is fantastic to be here at the first European round and scoring with both cars,” Vowles said. “It was great racing and we were fast on merit. However, oddly, we're disappointed. And that's how it should be.

“When you want and you can see that there is more available to you, you become disappointed with something that would have been an absolutely incredible result just 12 or 24 months ago. But we had the potential to, in various conditions, certainly be a place further ahead.

“And in the case of Carlos, we didn't get it right in that initial decision to box. The degradation looked to be very high and again, that cost a few positions. Irrespective though, what we have to take forward is that we have a very fast racing car and we've proven that now across a number of very different events.

“I'm excited going into Monaco. I think there's huge potential there. It's a difficult track, a very different track to anything we've been on, but we have demonstrated that we're able to get a lap time out of that C6, which will be the tire there, and then consistently race against others.

“We're not suffering the same degradation that we suffered the last few years and the balance is a lot more together. I think just summarizing all of that: Great that we have a fast car. We need to get the most out of it and we haven't yet, but I can't wait for the next race where we keep stepping it up.”

After another race weekend where Sainz felt Williams didn’t maximize the opportunity with his car, the Spaniard admits he’s having to balance the positive aspect of being so quick with the negative of the team’s execution.

“Obviously a bit unhappy right now after another weekend where we had a good pace, strong enough to score our top five,” 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, it felt too early at the time, obviously was too early in the end, but we just need to keep making steps forward on understanding each other on Sundays because at the moment it's costing us a lot of points and a lot of points on Sunday.

“But if in race [seven] I'm showing the level that I'm showing in terms of speed with the car and the way I feel, and I know we can only go forward, I will remain positive and keep pushing each other to keep improving as a team.”