Williams still struggles from overweight despite improvements

Williams’ 2026 season began with difficulty, but ahead of this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, Alexander Albon offered his opinion of how the FW48 has evolved — and why the team believes the coming races may finally play to its strengths.

The Thai driver revealed that his car that is still overweight, still inconsistent, but undeniably improving in low‑speed performance, race pace and overall drivability.

Asked whether Monaco offers greater possibilities after a challenging start to the year, Albon responded with humour: “Yeah, I think that, well, there’s no groundhogs in Monaco, so it should be a bit smoother.”

But beyond the joke, his explanation reflects the underlying engineering logic. Monaco’s layout reduces the impact of Williams’ biggest weakness — weight — while amplifying its strongest trait: low‑speed rotation.

“It’s normally a track that we’ve gone OK at. We know the weight penalty effect is quite low here as well, around Monaco, so it should come towards us.”

The FW48 has consistently performed better in slow corners than in medium‑ and high‑speed sections, a characteristic that aligns perfectly with the Principality: “Our car is mostly more performant in low-speed corners than it is in medium and high-speed.”

He also highlighted that the hybrid deployment profile of Monaco is favourable for Williams’ power unit and energy management systems:
“I think deployment-wise it’s quite user-friendly around here, so it will be hopefully an enjoyable weekend.”

Albon’s assessment of the season’s development curve is candid. The team has made progress — but the midfield has moved too, and the gains are incremental rather than transformative.

“If you look at Melbourne, we were mostly closer towards the Cadillac and the Aston than we are now. I think now we’re right at the fringes.”

The Canadian Grand Prix offered a clearer picture of race‑pace competitiveness: “In race pace around Montréal, we were actually competitive, maybe only behind the Alpine.

“We’ve brought a good upgrade package a couple of races ago, and as we know, you know, with the weight, we’ve just been chipping away at it every race pretty much. It is coming off, but there’s still some more to do.”

When asked how much quicker the current car would be if taken back to pre‑season testing in Bahrain, Albon avoided specific numbers but made the direction of travel clear: “I’m not sure. I think we do know, but we’re clearly going forwards.”

The evidence, he says, is visible on track: “I think the fact that we were able to overtake a few cars in the midfield on Sunday in Montréal, it clearly shows where we are. Not back to where we were last year, but we’re getting there," Albon concluded.