Williams finished their first race of the 2026 Formula 1 season with zero points. This Sunday (8) at the Australian GP, Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz lamented the result, but still tried to see the positive side of the weekend.
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During the 58 laps in Melbourne, the Thai-British driver was never able to fight within the top 10. With several virtual safety car interventions, he ended up crossing the finish line in 12th place.
“It was a long race for us today. Currently, we are in no man’s land and not really fighting against the midfield, although our strategy was good, but of course we are lacking pace. It’s obvious from the lap times that we are overweight and not generating enough downforce, and graining was also a problem for us today, especially with the hard tire,” said Albon.
“Being realistic, we know where we can find lap time and the team is working tirelessly on an aggressive plan to get us closer to where we want to be. A positive from today is that we gained mileage and overcame some reliability issues from previous sessions, but we will learn as much as we can this weekend to apply to the next race in Shanghai,” he added.
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Meanwhile, Sainz had an equally difficult race and finished three positions behind his teammate, in 15th place – something somewhat positive considering he was unable to run in qualifying.
“It was a difficult weekend with many problems in all sessions. We had a great start and I managed to move up to P12 in the opening laps. Unfortunately, we had a problem with the front wing, which compromised the entire aerodynamic balance, and the understeer I noticed caused the tires to wear out very quickly,” he commented.
“From then on, to be honest, the session became a test for me. This problem with the front wing is not new and we need to focus on solving it quickly if we want to improve in the short term. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I trust we can develop a good plan to implement these improvements,” he concluded.
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