Williams was left disappointed after a promising start to the 2026 F1 race in Malaysia unraveled, with Carlos Sainz finishing 17th and Alex Albon retiring after a mechanical issue.
Both Williams drivers made strong starts on intermediate tyres, with Sainz climbing from P13 to P6 and Albon from P18 to P7. However, their progress was halted when the first Safety Car brought the field into the pits for slick tyres, with Albon losing positions after being double-stacked behind his teammate, whose stop took 6.3 seconds.
More misfortune hit Sainz at the restart, as the Spaniard was spun Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto at Turn 2. While Sainz ultimately dropped out of points contention, Albon retired on Lap 43 after reporting a gearbox issue over the radio.
Sainz rues missed opportunity
Reflecting on his race in the print media pen, Sainz explained how the contact with Bortoleto and two slow pit stops made it difficult for Williams to stay within the top ten.
“Yeah, yeah. We were having the race and doing everything right to score a point or two today. But then the race went away from us, from obviously the touch with Gabi taking us off. Yeah, even though I left the space, I think he didn’t expect the inside of Turn 2 to be wet and he just bumped into me,” he began.
“From there on, we honestly was dry from there on. It’s not like our pace was amazing. Our pit stops were also not good, so it would have been a difficult day anyway. But yeah, up until there, we were doing everything to score points today.”
Sainz further acknowledged that Williams lacked the pace needed to challenge for points. Both Aston Martins finished ahead, with Fernando Alonso taking P8, while midfield rivals Racing Bulls, Haas and Alpine also placed higher than Sainz.
“Yeah, we didn’t seem to have… I mean, I had good pace in general, but compared to the other cars, not so much. So I think it would have been very difficult to score. Yeah, we would have needed to execute a perfect race and we had two very slow pit stops. The execution of the race from there onwards wasn’t great either. But I don’t know if that bump from Gabi threw us off a bit as a team, but from there it was a bit scrappy to be honest, to the end.”
Albon on brake and tyre troubles
On the other side of the garage, Albon revealed how brake issues and a small leak affected his Williams FW48 throughout the 2026 F1 race in Malaysia.
“Not really, no. We had brake issues all race, we had some form of leaking, but very small throughout the weekend. I don’t know if that’s the reason why we inevitably got the DNF, but maybe so.”
Tyre and pit stop issues also compromised Albon’s race. The Thai-British racing driver pitted from intermediates to soft tyres on Lap 9 before switching to hards on Lap 17 and returning to softs on Lap 29.
“Yeah, I lost out on the double stack, lost out,” he explained. “We had to box early because we had a flat spot, my soft tyres with the brake issue, so then it just felt like it fell away from us.”
Williams on the “back foot” throughout the Malaysian round
Albon was also summoned to the stewards alongside McLaren’s Oscar Piastri after an incident in which Albon slowed dramatically on the approach to the pit entry, forcing Piastri to brake and take evasive action.
Asked about the situation, Albon shared:
“I don’t know, I’m just making the VSC time, I had to brake, otherwise I was going to go past the minimum delta time, so maybe something there. Maybe he was close to me, also with the same thing, we were obviously close to each other. I was barely legal crossing the line, so I can’t imagine he would be more negative than me.”
Notably, Albons’ weekend had already been difficult before the race, with the Williams driver finishing P17 in FP1 before ending FP2, FP3, and qualifying in P20; he was almost a second slower than his teammate. He later moved up to P18 on the starting grid.
“Yeah maybe, maybe so. The performance was nowhere, but also nowhere on my side as well. Unfortunately, you just want a smooth weekend, a feeling of progress, but we’ve had issues with parts this weekend. Not lack of parts, just performing parts, and unfortunately if you’re not on the one part that you have, and you use your second best stuff, it’s not good enough. You’re immediately on the back foot. My god, I was on the back foot massively all weekend.”
