‘We’re not where we want to be’ – Albon assesses Williams' position after Bahrain testing

Alex Albon has explained how Williams are “playing catch-up” ahead of the season opener after they opted to skip the Barcelona shakedown, giving them three fewer days of testing than their rivals.

Due to the regulation changes for 2026, teams were provided with an additional pre-season opportunity for running at the Spanish circuit, where they could put their new cars through their paces for three days over a five-day period.

Williams elected to miss out due to “delays in the FW48 programme”, forcing Albon and team mate Carlos Sainz to hit the ground running at the main test in Bahrain. While they produced the joint-highest mileage in the first week, the team conceded they were still playing catch up relative to the rest of the field.

Asked whether they had sufficiently caught up over testing, Albon said: “No, I would say when you miss three days of testing, especially in a new regulation set, we are playing catch-up in many ways.

“We've learnt a lot, we did good mileage on week one of Bahrain. This week it was a little bit more performance orientated, but yeah, you know, we're not where we want to be. We won't get those days back, but I think we've got as much data as we need to.”

While their pre-season difficulties may be a hurdle as they look to match or better last year's remarkable fifth in the Teams’ Standings, Albon emphasised that plenty can change in the early rounds.

“I think there's still a lot to learn,” he said. “I don't know how raw [the cars] felt on week one, but it's clear there's still a lot of lap time to be gained in drivability and gear shifts and driving.

“It's not close to where it was last year in terms of that feeling, but it's getting there and I think the development of the car, development of drivability and things like that will be improved quickly throughout the season."