Williams fined €10,000 after two grid blunders

Williams capped a difficult Spanish Grand Prix with €10,000 in FIA fines after separate pre-start infringements involving Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon on the Barcelona grid.

Stewards handed the team two €5,000 penalties. In Sainz's case, the issue was "a black plastic box on the grass area next to the grid" that was not retrieved before the 15-second signal. Albon's car was involved in a different mistake. When car 23 was released from its jacks before the formation lap, parts of the right-front tyre blanket became caught underneath it. Although Williams tried to remove them, the stewards said "the car left with a cable still hanging off the car," which triggered the second fine.

The penalties added to a weekend in which Williams never looked competitive over the 66-lap race. Sainz finished 12th, while Albon dropped out of contention after an unplanned stop to repair his camera housing.

Sainz said the team had extracted all it could from the package despite the result. Carlos Sainz said after the race: "Overall, it was a frustrating weekend for the team. I had a very good start, managed the tyres well and did everything I could with our race pace today. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to fight for points, although I feel we maximized everything the car had to offer."

He said Williams now needs to understand why Barcelona exposed so many weaknesses in the car and solve those core traits before arriving at similar circuits.

Albon said the team's problems went well beyond the unusual grid infringement. Alexander Albon said after the race: "We were already struggling in the race before the camera problem, the tyre degradation in this heat was really hurting us, and there is something deeper going on with the car that we need to understand."

That left the fines as a symptom of a broader problem for Williams in Spain: operational mistakes before the start, no points on Sunday, and bigger questions about a car that could not cope with the circuit or conditions.