Carlos Sainz issues apology to rumoured F1 2025 team-mate after Canada collision

Carlos Sainz said ‘sorry’ to Alex Albon after taking him out of the Canadian GP

Carlos Sainz has apologised to Alex Albon, smoothing things over with his potential 2025 team-mate after punting the Williams driver out of the Canadian Grand Prix.

As the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve began to dry out, Carlos Sainz began to push harder as he felt points were on the cards in what had been a tricky weekend for Ferrari.

Carlos Sainz admits it was a ‘driver mistake’

Alas, it came to nought when he spun at Turn 5 and collected Albon in the process.

“It was a driver mistake,” Sainz admitted. “I was starting to take some risks because I could see that in the dry we were a little bit more competitive and there was the chance for points if I took some risks and overtook some cars in DRS trains.

“But I ended up paying the price.”

So too did Albon. Although he tried to avoid Sainz, the spinning Ferrari clipped Albon’s Williams as Sainz spun back across the track.

Damaging the rear-right of the FW46, both drivers were out of the race.

Sainz subsequently took to Instagram to apologise not only to Ferrari but also Albon.

“A race to forget for the team,” he posted on social media. “The entire weekend has been on the edge for us.

“I tried to push in the DRS train to overtake and did a mistake on the kerb. Sorry to the team and to Albon.”

Sainz is hoping Canada, which ended in a double DNF for Ferrari, was an outlier in the team’s 2024 results.

“I think Canada was a bit of a one-off, a bit of a special one and we need to understand what happened as a team,” he added. “There was clearly something the others were doing in qualifying with the tyres to prep them better.”

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Carlos Sainz is Williams ‘number one target’ to partner Alex Albon

With Albon already confirmed for next season having signed a new multi-year extension with Williams, team boss James Vowles is searching for the Thai-British racer’s team-mate.

And Sainz is his “number one” pick.

“He’s a race-winning driver that last year against all odds beat Max [Verstappen] in Singapore with a brilliant drive, and that’s not the first time,” Vowles told Sky Sports. “He’s intelligent how he approaches things, logical, incredibly quick.

“What he did this year in Shanghai…. It’s going to sound like a negative, it’s not… In qualifying he crashed and we’ve all been there to a certain extent, [but] it’s an impressive athlete that can reset themselves, go back out and then beat your team-mate in that condition.

“I think that shows you just how strong he is as a driver, and I think any team on the grid would be fortunate to have someone like Carlos alongside them.”

Pushed on whether is at the top of his list, the team boss replied: “That bit I can say. The number one target is Carlos.”

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