Alex Albon has dismissed suggestions of lingering tension with Williams team-mate Carlos Sainz after their collision at the Dutch Grand Prix, revealing that the pair discussed the incident over breakfast on Monday.
Sainz accepted full responsibility for the intra-team clash at Zandvoort and received a 10-second penalty. The Spaniard was defending on old hard tyres into Turn 1 when he hit a bump on the inside line, locked up and slid into Albon’s car.
The collision damaged Albon’s floor and forced him to retire, while Sainz finished 16th. However, Albon said there was no bad blood between the Williams drivers during an appearance on The Fast And The Curious podcast:
“We grabbed breakfast on Monday. Carlos offered to pay. I allowed him to pay.
“All chill. I think people like to make it out [to be] more than it really is, but at the same time, it was no Max and Daniel [Verstappen and Ricciardo at Baku in 2018]. For me, that was important. You can tell in the media pen as soon as you go after the race, you feel like the interviewer is like licking their lips, they’re getting so excited.
“So you just have to kind of like shoulder it and be like, ‘No, we’re not going to go down that road.'”
Albon joked that the collision had left Sainz owing him a free hit in the name of team equality. Asked whether he was allowed to “bump off” Sainz once as payback, Albon replied:
“I think that’s a good one. I’m not sure the team would agree with this,”
He then added:
“I shouldn’t say this because it’s going to write its own script.”
Albon also offered an insight into the pair’s Monday debrief in Monaco, describing the breakfast they shared:
“I kid you not, Lily had scrambled eggs with caviar. I had just classic avocado toast and then Carlos and I shared some protein pancakes.
“Carlos is way too confident about his pancake game. He has a confidence that I’ve never seen anyone have around pancakes. The way he talks about how he makes pancakes, you’d think he’s Gordon Ramsay’s coach.”
