Australian GP: Difficult qualifying for Williams F1 Team


By Williams Racing
March 7 2026

In what could only be described as a difficult Australian qualifying session for the Atlassian Williams F1 Team they would only see one driver, Alex Albon, set a time and that time would only see him manage 15th. For Carlos Sainz his qualifying issues started in FP3 where his car would stop with a technical issue and the team was not able to complete the repairs on his car and as such would not take part in Q1 of qualifying. In the leadup to qualifying the team was faced with reliability issues affecting both cars so to see Alex finish in Q2 was an achievement in itself. The team is hoping that in Sunday's race both cars can first and foremost finish the race and collect more valuable data for the next race in China in just a weeks time.

 
 Atlassian Williams F1 Team Australian GP Qualifying Review
 
Albon
 
Albon

Alex Albon:
"We maximised as much as we could today after we've struggled with some reliability issues this weekend. We were limited in some practice sessions, so to make it into Q2 was a decent result. There is a lot of work to do and it's not an overnight fix, but we’ll keep pushing and look to solve the reliability issues and limitations we’ve identified. For tomorrow I think we can expect some chaos, especially at the start, and not many teams have been able to do proper long runs due to red flags across the weekend, so it could be interesting. From our position we want a little bit of chaos, and we’ll look to keep it clean and take advantage of any opportunities in the race."

Sainz

Carlos Sainz:
"It’s been a very difficult weekend filled with reliability issues across each of the sessions. It’s unfortunate because we seemed to have no issues during both tests, so to come here and only do FP1 and the beginning of FP2, ultimately missing both sessions today, is frustrating. Hopefully tomorrow we can go racing and gather some experience and good learnings, as we’re already on the back foot."

 Vowles

James Vowles Team Principal:
"We haven't had a clean weekend at all, with only one car competing in qualifying following some power unit reliability issues. We know we are on the back foot and our winter has been difficult but we have a clear understanding of where we need to improve - and fast - and there are already programmes under way to achieve those goals. Our plan for tomorrow is to get both cars to the finish so we can build on the learning we have here and take it into Shanghai next weekend. Congratulations to Mercedes on the P1 and P2 today - that's the benchmark, and it gives us something to aim for."

 
Albon
 
Albon
 
Track: Albert Park Circuit, Australia Lap Length: 5.278 km
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
15 A Albon Williams Racing 1:21.051 1:20.941 -
21 C Sainz Williams Racing No Time - -
 
Albon
 

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