Alex Albon conceded that Williams will endure a troublesome finish to the 2026 Method 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.
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Hungary final outing was its worst consequence 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’s hope that the upgrades Williams has deliberate for Baku in September will enhance the scenario – with crew boss James Vowles beforehand labelling it “nearly a completely new automobile – however Albon is not so optimistic.
“We all know the weaknesses of the automobile, we all know the instructions,” stated the 30-year-old. “I feel as a crew, this 12 months, the work that is being finished on the manufacturing facility, it is the largest effort I’ve seen from the crew to actually battle these genetic DNA issues that this crew has.
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“I respect it. I feel we’re doing precisely the proper issues to get again on observe. It is a disgrace that we’re right here within the first place, however I do imagine we’re doing the proper factor.
“If it is cured by Baku? I doubt it. I feel a whole lot of the Baku stuff has occurred. That improve was deliberate fairly a very long time in the past.
“Plenty of what we’re actually, sadly, biting into is subsequent 12 months’s automobile. It is ensuring subsequent 12 months’s automobile does not have these traits – irritating!”
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Alexander Albon, Williams
Alexander Albon, Williams
Williams’ struggles stem from a gradual begin to the 2026 regulation change because it skipped the Barcelona shakedown in January as a consequence 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 had been exacerbated for Williams in Budapest.
It’s now on the level the place Albon does not even really feel assured sufficient to showcase his full skills, the extent he managed to succeed in final 12 months with factors in seven of the primary eight rounds.
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“Actually, driving sensible, it is irritating as a result of I am unable to even drive actually,” he added after the Hungarian race. “The crew’s not getting the most effective from me as a result of I’ve to under-drive a lot: the gusts, the wind, the observe. We speak about that three wheeling.
“It is simply, you try to push. I feel there have been six laps within the race the place the wind stabilised and I may lastly calm 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.
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“You are simply braking on the identical locations, doing the identical issues, however simply missing consistency. It was a battle on the market at present.”
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