Williams’ Alex Albon had another difficult weekend during the F1 2026 British GP in Silverstone. The Thai struggled after causing a collision with Ollie Bearman on the opening lap and finally retired the car after a few testing laps.
During the chaotic first lap, Albon spun and hit Haas’ Ollie Bearman in Brooklands. The Williams driver pitted to switch to a new nose, and on lap 16 pitted for a second time to serve a ten-second penalty as a result of the incident.
After that, the team decided to use the race as an additional testing session, a strategy Williams has opted for on many occasions this year. Even then, Albon retired on lap 43 after he had gathered enough data.
Albon takes responsibility for the first lap collision
After the race, while discussing the incident at the start of the GP with Bearman, Albon admitted: “Yeah, my fault.
“We just had a bad start, had a lot of wheelspin. And then from there, just struggled.
“So, we’ll review it,” said the Thai.
Still, he highlighted the new front wing. “Tested the new front wing, different set-ups with the front wing.”
Albon added they had already done something similar in Suzuka, “just to make sure we understand what we’re doing.
“This is the lightest we’ve been this weekend. I think the weather’s allowed us to run it as light as we could. Performance is still not there, so Spa hopefully it’s cool, we can… What we see is when the track gets a bit hot, we really struggle with the rear car.”
“Nothing’s new with a Formula car. It’s just keep on going. Keep it together
“I get it”: Albon on Sunday’s test sessions
Discussing how he felt giving up the race and transforming it into an additional test session, Albon said: “Yeah, but I get it at the same time.”
“I’m frustrated, but more, bad lap one. And then turned into a test session.
“Hopefully that just stops us from doing anything unnecessary in FP1s and FP2s later in the year.”
Albon was also asked how he handled debriefs during the race. Even though the Thai agreed to remain in the British GP to collect data for the team, he also noted that sharing insights through the radio makes no sense to him.
“Yeah, the point is that they wanted a full breakdown of the new front wing. I have mental capacity, but not to break down every single corner in every lap. I don’t think me saying it on the radio benefits anyone because we just give our opposition a clue of what we have done to the car.”
“Feels a little bit like a passenger,” says Albon on issues during F1 2026 British GP
Finally, Albon discussed some of FW48 issues he battled with during the race. “Yeah, we had this issue. Basically, we have a lot of front locking and inside wheel lift, as you already know now. Side by side with other cars, it gets ten times worse.
“Sometimes when the car wants to go around the outside, I’m a bit… Feels a little bit like a passenger sometimes. Actually, it was like that in turn 6 today, I was okay, but as soon as I committed to the inside, I knew I was going to lock-up with the issues we have.
“I’ll get used to it. I think I’ll get used to it. Sometimes you have to take a lot of caution in lap one, especially with our car for that reason.”
Overall, another disappointing weekend for Williams. While Albon did not finish once again, Sainz was P17 in the main race after a post-race penalty. On Saturday, the Spaniard finished in the same position during the Sprint, with Albon just one place behind in P18. As it stands, Sainz is currently P15 in the Drivers’ Championship with 6 points and Albon is P16 with 5.
