The 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP didn’t reserve a positive day for Williams’ Alex Albon. While the season isn’t particularly smiling to the Grove-based team, a tiny spark of hope presented overall with his teammate Carlos Sainz’s P10 finish, which brought some respite ahead of the upcoming Malaysian round.
Albon had an eventful Saturday at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP
The British-Thai driver had managed to secure a positive P13 starting position, improved to P12 following the demotion of Sainz. In the early laps of the race, Albon was able to avoid any drama, albeit losing a spot to championship leader Kimi Antonelli’s recovery run following a Qualifying crash.
Unfortunately for him, the Williams man crashed out on Lap 30 from P13, as he made contact with the wall at Turn 5 after locking up, unable to avoid hitting it.
Albon didn’t completely understand the dynamics of his crash, as he explained after the end of the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP.
“Yeah, it was odd. I think you see the rear camera, so you don’t really see the crash itself. A little bit later, I had a big wing gust. I thought I would run a little bit wide, but I never thought I’d hit a wall. It was weird.”
While he takes responsibility for the accident, Albon reckoned the inherent DNA in the last few years Williams cars played a part.
“We’ll look at the data. I’m sure I have to hold my hand up in that situation, but at the same time… We’ve had these issues before. We know our car likes to lift the front wheel, and sometimes when it does that, the penalty for front locking is huge on our car. It happens.”
The three-wheeling issue Williams continues to suffer with
He went into further detail describing the hardships encountered with the behaviour of his FW48. Ever since joining the team four years ago, the Thai and his teammates have experienced three-wheeling under braking and turning, giving away valuable lap time. It has also led to crashes and spins.
“Yeah, we know we three-wheel. We know when we brake a little bit late, we can expose ourselves to that three-wheeling, for sure. With the wind gusts and braking late at the same time, it just tips it over the edge.
“It wasn’t a huge amount, it was a few metres, but that’s too much. We can’t take that,” Albon concluded.
