Alex Albon conceded that Williams will endure a tricky finish to the 2026 Components 1 marketing campaign with precedence now shifting to constructing a quick automobile for 2027.
The Grove outfit has didn’t kick on from its multi-podium season in 2025 and is ninth within the 2026 championship after 11 rounds with solely 11 factors and none since Monaco in June.
Hungary final day trip was its worst outcome but, ending seventeenth and 18th with Carlos Sainz and Albon each out in Q1 having been leapfrogged by Audi and Aston Martin, which just lately fitted upgrades.
There may be hope that the upgrades Williams has deliberate for Baku in September will enhance the scenario – with workforce boss James Vowles beforehand labelling it “nearly a wholly new automobile – however Albon isn’t so optimistic.
“We all know the weaknesses of the automobile, we all know the instructions,” stated the 30-year-old. “I feel as a workforce, this yr, the work that is being executed on the manufacturing facility, it is the most important effort I’ve seen from the workforce to essentially struggle these genetic DNA issues that this workforce has.
“I recognize it. I feel we’re doing precisely the precise issues to get again on monitor. It is a disgrace that we’re right here within the first place, however I do imagine we’re doing the precise factor.
“If it is cured by Baku? I doubt it. I feel plenty of the Baku stuff has occurred. That improve was deliberate fairly a very long time in the past.
“A variety of what we’re actually, sadly, biting into is subsequent yr’s automobile. It is ensuring subsequent yr’s automobile would not have these traits – irritating!”
Alexander Albon, Williams
Photograph by: Alex Bierens de Haan / Getty Photographs
Williams’ struggles stem from a gradual begin to the 2026 regulation change because it skipped the Barcelona shakedown in January as a result of manufacturing delays and the knock-on impact has been evident.
The FW48 suffers from being chubby and with the Hungaroring being a high-downforce circuit, these issues have been exacerbated for Williams in Budapest.
It’s now on the level the place Albon doesn’t even really feel assured sufficient to showcase his full talents, the extent he managed to achieve final yr with factors in seven of the primary eight rounds.
“Truthfully, driving sensible, it is irritating as a result of I am unable to even drive actually,” he added after the Hungarian race. “The workforce’s not getting one of the best from me as a result of I’ve to under-drive a lot: the gusts, the wind, the monitor. We discuss that three wheeling.
“It is simply, you attempt to push. I feel there have been six laps within the race the place the wind stabilised and I may lastly cool down and get right into a rhythm.
“Then the wind picks up once more and also you’re again into that cycle. It feels such as you’re making errors however you are not.
“You are simply braking on the identical locations, doing the identical issues, however simply missing consistency. It was a battle on the market in the present day.”
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