Ferrari insider warning emerges as Sainz and Albon hit with F1 2026 demotion threat

While former Ferrari and Williams figure Rob Smedley supports the plan of James Vowles for strict boundaries in the event of a front-running Williams team, hinting at demoting Carlos Sainz or Alex Albon, is not something Smedley supports.

Williams is hoping to be a major winner of the F1 2026 regulation changes, but team principal James Vowles has warned Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon that he would go as far as demoting a driver, should any major shenanigans occur. Smedley revealed that Ferrari never had such a policy during his extensive time there, as only the team would lose in such a scenario.

Would Williams be the loser in demoting Carlos Sainz or Alex Albon?

The widely-held belief is that Mercedes will arrive for F1 2026 with a strong power unit designed to the new rules. As well as revamped engines, the cars are set to become smaller, lighter and more nimble, while making use of active aerodynamics.

As one of four teams set to use the F1 2026 Mercedes engine, Williams has had its focus on next year for much of the current campaign. Sainz next year is hoping to see steps towards rewarding his faith in Williams, having joined in 2025 after his enforced Ferrari exit.

Should Williams be in a position to fight for wins next year, team boss Vowles is going to have a clear plan in place to manage his drivers and maintain harmony. He is ready to break out the big guns if he needs to.

Appearing on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Vowles was asked what sort of punishments would be in his armoury to sanction a world champion elect.

“The most harshest of punishments is you’re not in the car next week,” Vowles warned. As host Tom Clarkson responded with a sound of utter shock, Vowles added: “Correct.”

Asked to clarify that he would actually have that level of punishment in his back pocket to use, Vowles affirmed: “If you had two drivers that were pushing themselves, that they are effectively crashing into each other more than they’re finishing a race, yes.”

Clarkson also hosts the F1 Nation podcast, where he asked guest Rob Smedley whether such a threat was ever used during his time at Ferrari.

Smedley joined Ferrari back in 2004, the year Michael Schumacher won his record seventh and final World Championship. Smedley remained with the Scuderia until 2013, after which he joined Williams as head of vehicle performance, from 2014-18.

“No, absolutely not,” Smedley confirmed.

How F1 2026 is shaping up

? F1 2026: Confirmed teams and power unit suppliers for F1’s huge regulation changes

? F1 2026 driver line-up: Who is already confirmed for the 2026 grid?

He continued: “I think you’ve got to have sanctions that are sensible. Not going in the car the next week, being replaced, you’re only hurting yourself, right? Because there’s a reason why you’ve got the two drivers that you have as your two official drivers. If you replace them with a non-official driver, you’re going to hurt the team at that point.

“I agree with James. You have to have limits. And the one thing that I think is so true in what he said is there has to be clarity, right? You cannot have an ounce of ambiguity.

“Now, what happens is, where does the ambiguity come in? The ambiguity comes in because there’s an edge case that you haven’t thought about.

“So you say, ‘Here’s the rules of engagement, this is what we do, right?’ Usually, on a Sunday morning, team principal, the very senior members of the team, and the two drivers, would sit down, and we would all sit around in an office, in the hospitality and we would say, ‘Right, here’s the rules of engagement. This is what we’re going to do, right? If this happens at Turn 1, this is what happens. If this happens during the first lap, this is what happens. Here’s how you engage. Here’s how you don’t engage.’

“Where you get the blow-ups is the edge cases, because we wouldn’t sit there and say, ‘If one of you drives into the other one in Turn 2 and drives it towards the wall’… That’s an unexpected behaviour. So you’ve got to have complete clarity between your drivers. You’ve got to set the boundaries. He’s absolutely right.

“So of course, for the team, it’s always that you want that Constructors’ Championship. The drivers solely focus on themselves, and that’s right, by the way. If you’ve got drivers who are the best team players, and that’s all they ever think about, is the team, and they never think about themselves, you’ve got the wrong guy in the car.

“You need warriors in the car who are thinking solely about themselves. You then have to set the boundaries and the conditions. They are elite athletes, so they’re selfish. That’s part of their make-up. But, you have to set the boundaries within which they work, that their behaviour has the best outcome for the team. That’s how you play it.

“But, you’re never going to get a driver, especially like, you know, multiple World Championship drivers, going back to the point we were talking about earlier, who are thinking, ‘How can I help all my teammates out? In fact, not only that, how do I help the guy across the garage out? Like, let me do something really magnanimous for them.’ No way, that’s never going to happen.”

Williams sits fifth in the F1 2025 Constructors’ Championship on 102 points, with six rounds remaining.

Read next: Carlos Sainz drops new Mercedes F1 2026 engine clue with Williams admission