Williams driver Alex Albon sounds the alarm over development: “We’ve fallen behind”

Madrid proved yet again to be a frustrating race weekend for the long-established British racing team Williams. Alex Albon finished 15th, a lap behind the leader. Carlos Sainz was unable to even finish his home race, having to pull over on the track of which he is an ambassador. What a frustrating weekend in Spain!

Alex Albon sounded glum after the Grand Prix. Speaking about his debut at the ‘Madring’, he said: ‘It was one of my stronger weekends, but at the same time it was just really, really inconsistent. Realistically, the pace isn’t good enough.’ He had major problems with the tyres and couldn’t really get into the fight. Albon: “That’s frustrating in many ways. Now I’m just looking forward to Baku.”

Williams loses a second on every lap

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix takes place there after a weekend’s break. And Williams is bringing an upgrade package – at last. But will that bring the turnaround they’re hoping for? Albon: “Realistically speaking, we’re currently 50 seconds behind the midfield in the race. We’re losing more or less a second per lap in the race. It’s going to have to be quite a significant upgrade. We’ll see. We know it’ll be a good step forward. Will it be the big step? I hope so, but I don’t think it will be.” Phew!

It feels as though we’re not making any progress at all – more like going round in circles. The Briton: “Unfortunately, we said the same thing last year, but the focus is also on next year. We realise that we’re too far behind at the moment to get a few more upgrades for this year. We need to concentrate on next year.”

“We’ve fallen behind”

As for exactly which new developments Williams is bringing to Baku, they clearly don’t want to reveal their hand just yet. But that doesn’t sound like much confidence. Albon: “Even the midfield teams introduce three or four improvements a year, and the scale of those improvements is also enormous. If you think of us in a normal year, Baku would have put us back in the running, but we have to be honest with ourselves. The pace of development this year is enormous, and we’ve fallen behind.” It sounds as though the Baku upgrade is therefore more of a consolation prize than a major lifeline.

Topic of the week

Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring: track – hit or miss?

The people of Madrid had set their sights high for their city’s first Formula 1 World Championship race since 1981. But have the high expectations for the new Madring mixed-circuit track really been met?

Mathias Brunner

Read More

TV Program

Live

Baku: 1. Freies Training

FIA Formula One World Championship

24.09.2026 - 10:15