Fortunate? Our verdict on Williams retaining Sainz and Albon

There's some good news for Williams to come out of its underwhelming 2026 Formula 1 season - as it's convinced Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon to stay with the team.

Those two deals, announced a day apart, involve Sainz agreeing to a new multi-year commitment, while with Albon The Race understands no new racing contract has been agreed - and that instead his 2027 confirmation relates to exit clauses that existed in the contract.

And that's pertinent in the context of this troubled Williams campaign. So were they right to stay? And was there ever a better option out there anyway?

Here's our reaction to those developments:

Williams is very fortunate

Matt Beer

Williams has been fortunate here. There are still just a few too many question marks over the other midfield options, and too few signs of driver movement at them, to offer convincing exit routes for Albon and Sainz, and in that context it makes sense for them to still believe in all of the promise of the lead-up to 2026 over the absolutely terrible reality of their 2026.

Because the Williams arriving late, being slow and overweight, and not having much real hope of getting any quicker this year, could - and in some circumstances, should - have torpedoed the team's chances of keeping two drivers with so much to offer in F1, given its plan had been so clearly built around taking a big leap forward with the regulation change. Not a giant tumble backwards.

Anyone with a bit of F1 romance in them wants to see a Williams resurgence. It was painful to see this team at the bottom, and heartwarming to see it striding forwards again. This year is such a big misstep, just at the time its new era should have really started bearing fruit, that it goes into 2027 with a massive amount to prove to its fans and particularly its drivers.

What else could Sainz have done?

Gary Anderson

I suppose the big question is where else could Sainz go? Yes, there is potentially Audi, but it is not really setting the world alight. Perhaps it's better the devil you know than jumping ship with no guarantees of any better success.

Sainz is at a time in his career where he will be thought a lot more of by staying put and doing the best he can to build Williams back into a competitive team. He has that drive and engineering knowledge to point it in the right direction - the question is: will it follow his lead?

Williams has two good drivers in Sainz and Albon, so if it is still uncompetitive next season then it needs to look deeper to find the problems.

A marriage of two factors for Sainz

Jon Noble

Of all the drivers who would have been prime for cutting their losses and jumping ship off the back of 2026 disappointment, Sainz was right up there.

This season was supposed to be the big one for Williams after it threw everything at going early with its new-rules design.

So, the scale of its struggles, with a late, overweight and uncompetitive car, were particularly difficult for someone of Sainz's calibre to accept as something simply to smile at, endure and hope the team got through.

That he has committed to staying has to be seen as a marriage of two factors.

The first is that Williams has at least accepted and owned up to the responsibility of things not working - and committed to making necessary changes to ensure that what has gone wrong this year does not happen again. Being in denial, and ploughing on blindly with a bunch of excuses, would not have cut it.

But there is also an element that outside options were pretty limited for Sainz to get himself anywhere else that could be guaranteed to be better in the short term.

The top-four teams all look locked down - Max Verstappen's confirmation of remaining at Red Bull should be imminent - and even going down the order there is not much scope for a shake-up.

Racing Bulls is a closed shop. Audi is happy with Nico Hulkenberg. Aston Martin remains a gamble in the short term to work out how much progress it can make. And Alpine was never really on the radar.

For now, Williams has headed off Sainz's thoughts of the grass being greener anywhere else. But it knows that it needs to deliver on steps forward.

And while it has hailed Sainz's contract as multi-year, modern deals are full of options - and we know his management team is too smart to have given itself no break clauses that would prevent an escape route if some top-line vacancies do eventually open up.

All eyes on 2028

Josh Suttill

Williams has bought itself time, and James Vowles and co deserve great credit for the strength of their arguments, including those that won Sainz from the temptation of Audi and Alpine in the first place in 2024.

But the race will already be on to convince Albon and particularly Sainz to stick around beyond 2027 - when there may be more tempting options to move elsewhere than there are presently.

Sainz has committed himself to Williams, but that doesn't mean he won't be spending some of the next 12 months keeping an eye on the competition.

I still see him as the ideal successor to Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin or the leader Audi needs.

He has a relentless off-track work ethic that still sticks in the minds of former employers McLaren and Ferrari.

Plus, he has the dogged on-track determination that means Oscar Piastri is right when he says Sainz fights for last place like the world championship - except that's a positive in 99% of races and exactly why it's such a win for Williams to retain a driver line-up that's far better than its current car.

Williams benefits far more from this

Megan Cantle

I'm sure Carlos Sainz is being excellently reimbursed for his time but this is a deal that seems to be a lot more beneficial to Williams than to him.

He may have fallen slightly out of favour with the general F1 watching audience at times this season but I still think there's a driver in there who could offer a more upwardly mobile team something.

Williams may well complete a turnaround and change its fortunes next season - we've seen it do so before - but on this year's performances it doesn't appear to be offering much in terms of results.

I admire Sainz's conviction that he can help the team return to more successful ways but I can't help but feel he would have been an interesting player in the driver market when one of the BIG dominoes inevitably falls in the next few years.