Williams arrived at the first collective tests in Bahrain with a clear mission: to recover lost time. After being the only team to skip the Barcelona shakedown due to delays from crash test approvals, the Grove squad immediately displayed surprisingly strong mechanical reliability. Despite missing the practice week at the Circuit de Catalunya, the FW48 avoided the typical teething problems of late-born projects, accumulating valuable mileage from the two filming days completed before the Sakhir tests.
The numbers tell a story of a team working hard to close the operational gap. Carlos Sainz completed an impressive 214 laps, making him the second most active driver on the grid, surpassed only by his former Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc with 219 laps. Alongside the 208 laps completed by Alex Albon, Williams finished the week with a total of 422 laps, even matching and surpassing the distance covered by McLaren—a clear testament to the reliability of the new Mercedes power unit integrated into the FW48 chassis.
Technical challenges: lack of grip and gaps in race simulations
Despite this consistency, not everything ran smoothly. The FW48 showed some inherent issues related to setup and mechanical grip management. Both Albon and Sainz reported a chronic lack of grip, largely due to a car forced to run a stiffer configuration than ideal. This excessive stiffness penalized Williams, particularly in Friday’s race simulations, where the gap to direct competitors like Haas and Alpine appeared both clear and concerning with Melbourne in mind.
Looking at the times, even with many variables, Alex Albon posted the sixth fastest overall time in race simulations, but a direct comparison with Esteban Ocon highlighted Williams’ difficulties. The Haas driver, in the new VF-26, maintained an average pace of 1:39.869 on hard C1 tires over a 16-lap run, significantly faster than Albon’s averages of 1:43.074 and 1:41.696 over two identical 17-lap stints in the first part of Friday’s simulation.
The comparison with the Alpine A526 driven by Franco Colapinto was even tougher. On Friday, the Argentine completed a very consistent simulation: on medium tires, he averaged 1:39.565 over 13 laps, beating Alex Albon’s final 1:40.241 on the same compound over 18 laps. Looking at the top of the field, the gap becomes even more pronounced.
Voices from the garage: optimism for the future and realism about the present
After the first three days of testing, the Williams garage exuded cautious optimism, tempered by the awareness that the path to competitiveness is still uphill. Alex Albon emphasized that the primary goal of the three-day session was understanding the new systems, without chasing outright performance, which currently appears lacking.
“We knew it would be three challenging days to gain pace and start understanding the new car and regulations. The positive aspect is that we put in a lot of laps and the car seems reliable, which is never easy in the first week of testing,” explained the Anglo-Thai driver, clearly focused on the data collected. Alex Albon didn’t hide the adaptation challenges: “For me, getting comfortable with a new car was a challenge, but I’m enjoying its complexities. There’s a lot of room for improvement and much to learn to bring a better package to the next tests, so we’re in for a week of intense data analysis.”
On the other side of the garage, Carlos Sainz approached the situation with the experience of someone who has gone through many regulation changes, highlighting that Williams is still in a catch-up phase compared to the top teams. He stressed the different driving sensations compared to the past.
“Overall, it was positive to properly test the car over these days and complete so many laps. We’re still catching up in some areas, but doing over 210 laps gave me a much better understanding of what to expect this year,” Carlos Sainz commented. The Spaniard also issued a warning about the 2026 grid hierarchy: “The cars seem very different, and it’s going to be a challenging season. It’s still early to discuss performance in detail, but it’s clear that the gap between teams isn’t as tight as last year, at least for now. For me, it’s important to have identified the main areas to focus on, and I hope we can gradually improve as we approach Melbourne. There’s a lot of work ahead, so there’s no time to waste.”
Both Sainz and Albon seem to agree: reliability is the foundation to build on, but the performance deficit—especially in terms of grip and chassis flexibility—will require targeted interventions starting from next week’s Sakhir tests to prevent the start of the season from becoming a frantic chase.
The initial data from Bahrain paints a picture of a Williams team that has successfully cleared the first hurdle of the 2026 era: building a reliable platform. While the high lap counts from Sainz and Albon provide a wealth of data, the lack of mechanical grip and the pace deficit to Haas and Alpine suggest that the FW48 is still a “work in progress” in terms of raw performance. The upcoming final week of testing will be crucial for the Grove engineers to unlock the chassis’ flexibility, ensuring that the team’s impressive reliability isn’t wasted at the back of the grid when the lights go out in Melbourne.
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