Alex Albon has revealed that Williams F1 Team are “playing catch-up” ahead of the 2026 season opener after skipping the Barcelona shakedown due to delays with the FW48 programme, costing them three valuable pre-season testing days compared to their rivals. This forced Alex Albon and teammate Carlos Sainz to begin testing in Bahrain under more challenging conditions.

Although the team logged the joint-highest mileage during the first week, Albon admitted they are still trailing other teams. Missing the extra testing days under the new 2026 regulations limited their ability to fully refine the car, but the Bahrain sessions provided critical data to build on.

During a recent media interview, Albon elaborated:

“We’ve learnt a lot, we did good mileage on week one of Bahrain. The week was a little bit more performance orientated, but 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.”

“I would say when you miss three days of testing, especially in a new regulation set, we are playing catch-up in many ways.”

“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.”

“I think there’s still a lot to learn. 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.”

Albon stressed that there is still substantial potential for improvement in the opening rounds. While the team has yet to fully unlock the performance of the FW48, he is confident that ongoing development will quickly close the gap over the course of the season.