Juan Pablo Montoya says Williams staff should be ‘sacked’ for allowing an overweight car

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Juan Pablo Montoya has shared his beliefs on what Williams should do after the 2026 car was overweight.

After sacrificing their 2025 car to focus on developing the 2026 car, Williams arrived at the 2026 season with a car that is reportedly 28kg overweight.

In the opening race of the season at the Australian Grand Prix, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz both failed to score points as they finished in 12th and 15th place at Albert Park.

The poor form from the first round of the season continued into the second race for the Chinese Grand Prix. Both Sainz and Albon were knocked out of Q1 in Shanghai as they qualified in 17th and 18th place.

Williams’ pain continues with both drivers out in Q1 at the Chinese Grand Prix

Use one word to describe Williams' season so far

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Juan Pablo Montoya believes Williams should hold staff ‘responsible’

Whilst discussing the situation with Williams on AS Colombia, Juan Pablo Montoya revealed that he believes the Grove-based constructor should ‘sack’ whoever is responsible.

The former Formula 1 driver said that Williams should hold whoever was ‘responsible’ accountable for the issues that they are facing.

Montoya said, “I said it last time, personally someone should be held responsible for that and that person shouldn’t be on the team because the people on that team and someone who held a position that obviously involved supervising that and making a mistake like that, should be responsible for it and should set a bit of an example for people.

“Not by threatening people, but people have to take responsibility for their work, if you know what I mean? If you’re the captain of, I don’t know, a cruise ship and you sink the ship, you’ll be sacked, if you know what I mean? It’s just like any job. If you’ve got a job to do and you mess it up, you’re out. And so I think that’s important.

“I don’t know what happened at Williams, and it’s not my problem. I know they have 42 parallel projects on the go right now to sort the problem out. I mean, Williams have had 42 parallel projects running since December, when they realised they were going to have weight issues; some are short-term fixes and others are longer-term solutions to get all that weight off the car.”

Where do YOU think Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon are going to finish in the 2026 drivers’ championship!

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Williams’ start to 2026 has been ‘wrong across the board’

As well as Montoya speaking about the issues at Williams, former Formula 1 driver, Jolyon Palmer, has discussed the problems that the team have been facing.

Palmer said, “They don’t have downforce. The weight is an issue. Procedurally, there’s a few things that are not tidy, and then, Carlos had reliability (issues) as well.”

Sainz has also been open about the issues that Williams have faced, as after the Australian Grand Prix, Sainz told the team via radio that they need to improve at the Chinese Grand Prix.

“We need to step up,” Sainz said. “We have too many issues, too many things going on. We’re all going to make an effort for China so we can have a better one.”