James Vowles outlines how Carlos Sainz helped Alex Albon and Williams’ stunning P5 finish in Australia

Williams Racing's team principal James Vowles revealed how Carlos Sainz's input during the F1 Australian Grand Prix helped his teammate Alex Albon to secure a P5. Sainz's debut race with the team was short-lived after he crashed on the opening lap.

This gave the Spaniard the chance to get back into the garage and assist his teammate Alex Albon through his immense experience in racing. As James Vowles revealed speaking after the race, Carlos Sainz worked with the engineers as tricky weather conditions loomed over Albert Park. It was a tough question for teams to decide if staying out on slicks was the best option or should they have pitted.

Sainz convinced the team, looking at the radar, that the weather would get worse.

"Carlos was up on the pit wall right beside me and his insight was fantastic. He looked at the radar and went 'when that hits, they won't stay on track,' as simple as that. You could see the big key decision today is do you stop or not and you saw the field split. Carlos's information was key towards this so it is a group effort really in that regard and it was fantastic to see," Vowles said.

Alex Albon managed to finish P5 in the race, bagging major points for the team. Williams has seemingly improved quite a bit compared to their pace last year.

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James Vowles reflects on Carlos Sainz's unexpected crash

Shortly after the race started, Alpine's Jack Doohan crashed out on turn 5, triggering the safety car. Carlos Sainz, who started in P10, was seen spinning out and hitting the wall, which ended his race. This was quite odd coming from the 30-year-old considering his experience behind the wheel. After confirming that he was okay, Sainz told his team (through radio) that he had a sudden surge of 'torque.'

Looking back at his crash, team principal James Vowles mentioned that there was a gear upshift when Sainz was partly on throttle, but the team would have to review the incident more.

"It’s slightly odd, so we have to go through it more," Vowles said (as quoted by Motorsport). "Effectively it was an upshift on part-throttle, but there was more torque than he would have expected at that point."

This was Sainz's first race with the team after spending four seasons at Ferrari. As mentioned, Williams has made major gains over the winter. Alex Albon was effectively the fifth fastest car on the track in today's race.