Carlos Sainz Can’t Catch a Break: After Madrid, Controversy Erupts with Fernando Alonso
For Carlos Sainz, the 2026 season continues to be marked by controversy, disputes, and skirmishes, despite a Williams team that hasn’t lived up to the results it achieved in 2025. In recent months, the Madrid-born driver has had run-ins with his former Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, his current teammate Alex Albon, and—most recently—his compatriot Fernando Alonso. The two, in particular, exchanged insults both on and off the track during their “home” World Championship race, the Spanish Grand Prix held at the brand-new and highly controversial Madring circuit.
The two Spanish drivers remained in the back of the pack for the entire race, though that didn’t stop them from battling and hindering one another—by fair means or foul. Their respective, far-from-conciliatory personalities then came to the fore at the end of the race, with an exchange of scathing remarks. “He pushed me into the wall; at the start, he rammed into two cars, and now he sent me into the wall while braking,” the Aston Martin veteran complained over the radio right after the race. After the race, he added: “I wouldn’t want to crash at 340 km/h—I’d rather survive.” His Williams teammate was quick to respond: “That’s just the nature of the turn. There wouldn’t be anything to say, but he complained over the radio and, as always, managed to get me penalized.”
Sainz had made headlines, as mentioned, at Silverstone. On the British track—the scene of that very same British Grand Prix he won in 2022 by exploiting a strategy that hurt Leclerc and sparked the anger of a large portion of Ferrari fans—in 2026, the Spaniard made headlines due to a very difficult lapping maneuver by the Monegasque driver himself. “I’d argue with him two or three times a year, but then we’d talk on the phone and sort things out,” the current Williams driver said on Thursday in Madrid, reflecting on those years. It’s worth noting that there were also problems with his new teammate Albon: one need only recall the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, where the Anglo-Thai driver was forced to retire after contact with the other car from Grove.
Williams’ situation in 2026 represents a clear step backward compared to the previous season, when Sainz and Albon had contributed to what had been the team’s best season since 2016. The Spaniard had particularly stood out by securing his first podium with Williams in Baku, then adding another podium in the Austin Sprint and a third podium finish in Qatar. This performance had convinced the team to continue betting on him: in August, he signed a new multi-year contract, with Sainz stating that he “truly believed in the people who make up this team” and that he was “just as determined as I was on day one to help Williams return to where it belongs.”
Alonso’s 2026 season was no less tumultuous. Aston Martin, which entered the season with much higher ambitions thanks to the technical expertise of Adrian Newey, fell short of expectations, leaving the Spaniard languishing at the back of the pack for much of the season. With his contract set to expire at the end of the year, the two-time world champion has publicly admitted that he has not yet decided whether to continue his Formula 1 career into 2027, pointing the finger at the new regulations: “This isn’t the Formula 1 we grew up with,” he had declared at Monza. Words that, in light of the on-track clashes with Sainz in Madrid, sound almost like a polemical testament from a champion who has never shied away from speaking his mind, both inside and outside the cockpit.
