Hungarian GP: Tricky Friday for Atlassian Williams F1 Team


By Williams F1 Team
July 25 2026

In a day that saw the Atlassian Williams F1 Team come away with Alex Albon 16th and Carlos Sainz 17th the team would still have a productive Friday in preparation for the 2026 Hungarian GP. There is still a lot of overnight work to do for the team as they try to resolve various issues including overheating of the rear tyres. But despite the times the team still feels that they had a better Friday than they did at Spa.

 
 Atlassian Williams F1 Team Hungarian GP Friday Practice Review
 
Sainz
 

Sainz

Carlos Sainz:
"Tricky Friday in Hungary as expected. This track exposes our main weaknesses, and we are struggling to find the right balance in the car. We’ll use the weekend to explore different setup directions and see how we can improve at tracks like this where we know we’re lacking. The rest of this weekend will be about collecting valuable data and extracting as much performance as we can from this package."

 
Albon

Alex Albon:
"It was tough conditions out there today. We made some good steps forward between sessions and our low-fuel pace looks reasonable, but between the temperature and the tarmac, it's hard to separate what's setup-related and what's due to the change in conditions. Aston have made a big step this weekend - they're the ones we need to try to beat, and that's going to make Q1 challenging. We've still got some work to do overnight to maximise the opportunities tomorrow."

 

Richard Frith, Head of Performance Systems:
"A productive day today, with a lot of the usual challenges that come with this track. The wind always makes things difficult here and tyre management is a key focus. Getting rear-end stability through the high-speed corners is tricky, and it's hard to stop the rear tyres overheating while still getting the front tyres into a good window, so it’s something we’re working to find a good compromise on.

That said, we were more consistent today than we were at Spa, and we made good progress within the session. There's still a bit to do tonight and time left on the table before qualifying. Aston Martin's upgrades add an extra challenge for us tomorrow, so we'll be going through the data carefully, particularly looking at the floor tests we ran on Carlos’ car to see if there's anything more we can find overnight."

 
Albon
 
Sainz
 
Hungaroring, Hungary | 4.381km
 
Driver   FP1 FP2
A. Albon P15 | 1:21.819 | 28 Laps P16 | 1:20.973 | 33 Laps
C. Sainz P22 | 1:23.734 | 23 Laps P17 | 1:21.426 | 31 Laps
 
Albon
 

Bookmark or share this story with: