Williams in the News: Missed Opportunities, Penalty Reversals and F2 Progress

The fourth round of the 2025 Formula 1 season delivered its fair share of frustration, intrigue and lessons for Atlassian Williams Racing – from a missed points haul in Bahrain, a penalty u-turn, and some standout progress in Formula 2.

Here’s what the media have been saying over the past week…

Alex Albon saw his consistent run of points come to an end under the lights at the Bahrain International Circuit, despite the pace and execution being on point for much of the race.

Speaking to Formula1.com post-race, Alex called it a “missed opportunity” – with an unfortunately timed Safety Car proving decisive in his fight for a top-ten finish.

“We had enough [for the top 10], we had more than enough to be honest,” he said. “We were coming through the field really well on the hard tyre, we were about to go into a net P8 and then the Safety Car came out at the wrong time.

“We then had to double stack both cars so I lost another two positions in the pit stop and then we were P12.”

While the result didn’t reflect the team’s true potential, the FW47 continues to show strong underlying pace – and the fight for points remains very much on as we head to Jeddah.

Also in Bahrain, a strange post-race situation involving Carlos Sainz briefly stole headlines, after our No. 55 was handed – and then swiftly cleared of – a grid penalty for Saudi Arabia.

As covered by Motorsport Week, Sainz was initially hit with a three-place drop after stewards believed he’d failed to serve a time penalty for his battle with Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

But the FIA reversed its decision just ten minutes later, after confirming the penalty had indeed been served prior to Sainz’s retirement.

However it was the incident with Yuki Tusonda that ultimately ended his evening early. “It just cost me my race,” Sainz told the media. “At the same time, when I look at the onboard it’s kind of a racing incident. It just cost me my race.

“A bit of a lack of control from him in that situation. But at the same time, if I was Yuki and you lose the car a bit in the middle of a fight, you would understand why you don’t want a penalty.

“So a bit of a tough one to call but this time it cost me, I got caught on the wrong side of a coin and it is what it is.”

While headlines in F1 were dominated by what might have been, there was plenty to celebrate in Formula 2 – especially for our Academy driver Luke Browning, who delivered a career-best weekend in Sakhir.

After qualifying a superb third and finishing second in the Feature Race, Browning spoke to Formula Scout about the strides made since mid-season testing at the same venue, plus how he dealt with stepping out of our FW47 to head straight into F2 Qualifying.

“Great learning from the test in Sakhir last month,” he said. “The adaptation was tough, hopping out of an F1 car straight into F2 is not easy… I think my main goal was just to hit every apex, and we did that.”

“I think [that’s] why I was probably so excited over the radio, I didn’t exactly expect to be here from testing. So, yeah, I’m happy.”