James Vowles vows ‘it simply won’t happen again’ in F1 Miami Grand Prix debrief

The 2025 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix was a triumph for Williams. Both Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz Jr. finished in the points in the Grand Prix, with Albon coming across the line in P5 and Sainz finishing in ninth. Speaking with the media on Saturday after qualifying Sainz was elated at being just “three-tenths” off pole position, and Albon’s finish ahead of both Ferraris on pure pace certainly turned heads.

But it was not a completely smooth operation in the race, particularly from Sainz’s point of view. The Spanish driver was frustrated following the Miami Grand Prix, believing Albon overtook him after being instructed not to race. “Yeah that’s not ... That’s not how I go racing, guys,” Sainz said on the radio after the checkered flag. “I don’t care. I’ve lost a lot of confidence here on everything.”

Both Albon and Sainz then addressed the overtake after the race when speaking with the media.

“[I]f I’m told in the radio that I’m not going to be attacked, and we’re going to push together, to be overtaken it’s always, as a driver you feel stupid because you feel powerless,” said Sainz to the media, including SB Nation, after the Miami Grand Prix. “Because you’re playing the good guy, the same way that I played the good guy in Jeddah, and you get overtaken and you look completely stupid. But you know it’s the way it goes, we’ll talk about it, and I’m sure we’ll come out of it better as a team, and we will move on.”

For his part, Albon believed that a delay in the communication between the team and the two cars may have contributed to the situation, but he believed that at the moment he overtook Sainz, he was free to race.

“It was most probably in the exact moment of that message that was run over to him, so I think if we stayed up together a little bit longer then I would have been told that. But for that time, we were still free to race. So I think it was just a bit delayed between the two cars,” said Albon.

Now Team Principal James Vowles is giving his “verdict” on the situation.

In the latest “The Vowles Verdict,” a post-race series produced by the team, Vowles outlined what happened in Miami, with a concession that the situation was “the part that frustrated me the most from the race weekend.”

According to Vowles, Albon was on the verge of overtaking Sainz, but was also dealing with an overheating FW47. The communication to the drivers that they were to maintain a distance came as Albon was completing his overtake.

“A message was communicated to both race engineers, effectively that Alex had a reliability problem and we needed to get some air into the radiators,” began Vowles. “That was communicated to both with the decision of just making a little gap between the cars for the time being to make sure we do that.

“However, that message wasn’t clear in its construct. It wasn’t even clear on whether overtaking was possible or not. The primary function is getting the car cool to move forward.

“To Carlos the message was communicated: ‘Alex won’t attack you’ and to Alex that same message was communicated that he isn’t to overtake Carlos, but only [when] his DRS was open and he was effectively alongside Carlos completing the overtake.

“So this isn’t Alex going against team orders, this is on us as a team as an organisation to significantly tighten up how we communicate to the engineers and how quickly we communicate to the drivers.”

The Williams boss vowed that the situation would not happen again.

“What I can assure everyone is it simply won’t happen again.”

Vowles also indicated that he understood exactly where Sainz was coming from, with his frustration after the checkered flag.

“I’d be disappointed if we didn’t have drivers being frustrated by what happens out on track. They’re giving their heart and soul to it, so in the case of Carlos he was there fighting for a fifth place on merit.

“In the circumstance where something catches you off-guard and you’re not sure whether it was the driver or anything else going on, it can frustrate you. But his passion is exactly why I want him in this team and in the car.

“We spent quite a bit of time post-race and again on Monday talking through it – the incident actually was just a few minutes, but more importantly [discussing] how we as a team move forward from that and do a better job altogether in the future.”

Even with the incident, Williams banked 12 points during the Miami Grand Prix, increasing their lead over sixth-place Haas in the Constructors’ Championship to 17 points.