Spanish GP: Challenging Friday for Williams F1 Team

By Williams F1 Team
September 12 2026

Friday practice for the 2026 Spanish GP was a challenging day for the Atlassian Williams F1 Team as we would see Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon finish in 16th and 18th. Both drivers would enjoy the new Madring circuit but at the end of the day the team was overall not very competitive as both Carlos and Alex continued to struggle with the weaknesses of the FW48. Whether the team can make some progress going into Saturday is far from certain. But there is still a lot of work to do for the team and hopefully the team can make some steps forward.


Atlassian Williams F1 Team Spanish GP Friday Practice Review



	Carlos Sainz: "Friday done in Madrid! We've had a relatively smooth day with no issues or incidents, just a good couple of sessions where we could experiment with the setup. The track is spectacular. It's one of those tracks that gets you going when you're in the car, and it feels hectic to say the least, but I'm really enjoying it. Unfortunately, we don’t seem competitive at this circuit, but we'll do the best we can to put together a strong weekend and see what we're able to do."

	Alex Albon: "It was challenging out there today; there are a lot of different style corners, so it was quite tough on the tyres. I also struggled with deployment as it felt quite different lap to lap, so I just felt like I never fully found a rhythm with the car. The SIM correlation wasn’t too far off, so that’s a positive, but we’ve got a fair bit of work to do as a team. I thought it was going to be a bit more of a qualifying weekend, but I think with the extra-long pit lane, race pace and strategy are going to be factors we need to consider."

Madring, Spain \| 5.416km

Driver	FP1	FP2
C. Sainz	P17 \| 1:36.870 \| 30 Laps	P16 \| 1:36.291 \| 25 Laps
A. Albon	P20 \| 1:37.591 \| 25 Laps	P18 \| 1:36.936 \| 22 Laps