Williams ‘back to the drawing board’ after double SQ1 elimination in China
The two Williams drivers were knocked out in SQ1.
Williams driver Alex Albon said it was ‘back to the drawing board’ after both he and team-mate Carlos Sainz were among the six slowest drivers in qualifying for the China sprint.
Williams’ sacrifice of 2025 meant there was a lot of expectation for them in 2026 but the season has so far been underwhelming with the car overweight and slow compared to its competitors.
Williams reflect on poor China sprint qualifying
Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust
Having come away without a point in the season opener, there would not have been a great deal of optimism in the Williams camp ahead of China, a track that relies on downforce and car weight, but a double elimination in SQ1 showed just how far behind the FW48 is compared to where the team would like it to be.
After he qualified in 18th, Albon said it was “back to the drawing board” for the team.
“We were slow. I think we tried a few things that didn’t work out, so we’ll figure it out.
“We understand the limitations of it, but to fix it is another issue. So we’re not quite sold on it at the minute. So it’s tricky.
“We’re already treating the weekend a bit like a practice session.”
His team-mate Sainz pointed towards a weakness in downforce and weight for the Williams car and said there were “many issues” carried over from Australia.
More from China on PlanetF1.com
* George Russell storms to Chinese Grand Prix Sprint pole ahead of Kimi Antonelli
* Norris testimony saves Kimi Antonelli from Chinese GP Sprint penalty
* Hamilton says Ferrari’s ‘Macarena’ wing ‘a little premature’ in Shanghai
“In a track like this, where you’re very downforce dependent and also very weight dependent and we know we lag in these two areas,” Sainz said. “So it was always going to be a difficult weekend for us.
“It started more or less where we expected to be fighting to get out of Q1, maybe with a perfect FP1 where I could have run and we hit reliability issues again.
“Potentially, maybe you can think about fighting for Q2 but for that, we need a clean, clean weekend. And so far, it hasn’t started that way either. So many, many issues from Australia carrying over here, and we need to keep getting on top of them.
“We’re trying different things, testing different things. We will use the weekend to do so, and also to get myself up to speed. Because FP2 in Australia, I didn’t run almost. FP3, I didn’t run qualifying. I didn’t run FP1, I didn’t run.
“So you can imagine, I’m a few sessions down to the rest of the field, and to the knowledge of the car.”
Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.
You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!
Read next: Max Verstappen brands ‘whole day a disaster’ after China sprint quali
