Williams have continued their upward trajectory under team boss James Vowles in 2025, rising to fifth position in the Teams\u2019 Championship via some impressive points-scoring displays. But it has not all been smooth sailing for the Grove-based outfit, with a big second half lying ahead as they try to keep their midfield rivals behind. Here is the team\u2019s half term report\u2026<\/p>\n
Best finish<\/p>\n
Alex Albon \u2013 5th in Australia, Miami and Emilia-Romagna<\/p>\n
Alex Albon<\/a> made a storming start to the 2025 season by scoring points in seven of the opening eight Grands Prix, kicking off with an eye-catching top-six grid slot and top-five finish amid tricky, mixed weather conditions at the Australian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Albon added further P5 finishes at the Miami and Emilia-Romagna rounds, underlining his and Williams<\/a>\u2019 impressive run, and thrice marking the squad\u2019s best result since George Russell\u2019s surprise podium<\/a> in the brief, rain-hit 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Qualifying head-to-head<\/p>\n Albon 8-6 Sainz<\/p>\n Williams served up one of the more intriguing intra-team battles for 2025 when they signed Carlos Sainz<\/a> from Ferrari, giving incumbent Albon a multiple Grand Prix-winning benchmark to gauge where he stood some five years after being dropped by Red Bull\u2019s senior team<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Albon managed to hit the ground running in a familiar environment, Sainz needed time to adapt to a different outfit and chassis\/engine package \u2013 over one lap, that included an initial struggle to get the most out of the FW47 on Pirelli\u2019s soft tyres when it mattered.<\/p>\n Sainz made progress after a particularly puzzling experience<\/a> across the first three weekends, though, to log four successive top-eight starts between Bahrain and Emilia-Romagna, and he entered the summer break just a couple of marks down on Albon in their head-to-head.<\/p>\n Race head-to-head<\/p>\n Albon 9-4 Sainz<\/p>\n There is more of a gap between the Williams pair when it comes to race days and points scored, with Albon\u2019s aforementioned run \u2013 which has helped him reach a mid-season tally of 54 points compared to his team mate\u2019s 16 \u2013 leaving Sainz in the shadows for the most part.<\/p>\n As per Qualifying, Sainz has been working hard to understand the nuances of Williams\u2019 challenger across a race distance \u2013 his best Grand Prix result so far coming through eighth-place finishes in Saudi Arabia and Imola, along with a P6 result during the Sprint in Belgium.<\/p>\n Both drivers\u2019 efforts have been impacted by a trio of retirements or non-starts so far, with their double elimination in Austria<\/a> \u2013 Sainz due to pre-race brake problems and Albon due to in-race engine cooling woes \u2013 not counting towards the head-to-head score.<\/p>\n Best moment<\/p>\n All three of Albon\u2019s top-five results could be thrown into the mix for Williams\u2019 best moment of the year, with Australia being a statement of intent, Miami seeing him beat both Ferraris and a Mercedes in the dry and Imola including a push for the podium.<\/p>\n Looking at the bigger picture, Williams moving up to fifth in the Teams\u2019 Championship<\/a> following their double points finish at Jeddah delivered another landmark moment in a resurgence that is building more and more momentum under Team Principal Vowles<\/a>, who arrived in early 2023.<\/p>\n To put it into perspective, Williams scored a combined total of 84 points across the seven seasons held from 2018 to 2024. Just over halfway into 2025, they are only 14 points off that number, having bagged 70 between the season opener and Hungary.<\/p>\n Worst moment<\/p>\n After such a competitive start to the season, Williams endured their first blip of the year across the Spanish, Canadian and Austrian Grand Prix weekends, where they scored just one point with Sainz and saw Albon retire from all three \u2013 two due to his engine overheating.<\/p>\n Austria was a particularly painful event, with Sainz unable to even start when he got stuck on the grid, pushed to the pit lane and then withdrawn altogether, and Albon managing only 15 laps before Williams\u2019 season-long cooling problems reared their head again.<\/p>\n Going forward<\/p>\n Thankfully for Williams, recent updates appear to have done the trick in terms of keeping car temperatures under control, something that could be vital if they are to hold onto fifth in the championship and achieve their best classification since the 2017 campaign.<\/p>\n While Williams have bigger ambitions and are already focused on 2026 and the rules reset<\/a>, converting their current position \u2013 by keeping Aston Martin, Kick Sauber, Racing Bulls, Haas and Alpine behind them \u2013 would be another clear message to the competition.<\/p>\n