Alex Albon says Williams are playing catchup as Melbourne beckons

With the rebuild process launched by James Vowles when he joined Williams from Mercedes back in 2023, the 2026 reset should have been an opportunity for the team to climb up the F1 pecking order keeping in mind their fifth place finish in the 2025 Constructors' Championship.

However, what actually transpired was totally different and reminiscent of days when Williams were in the doldrums with the delay of the 2019 F1 car, under the watch of Claire Williams and Paddy Lowe at the time, springing to mind.

In the end, Williams succeeded in bringing the FW48 to Bahrain, and while they managed a decent mileage, that is not enough according to Albon.

He said: "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-oriented, 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," the Thai driver lamented.

“I think there's still a lot to learn,” he went on. “I don't know how raw [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," Albon concluded. (Reporting by Agnes Carlier)