Wrap-up: Albono enjoys productive trio of sessions during first pre-season Test

Find out everything you need to know about AA23’s first week of testing in Bahrain

Published

13 FEB 2026

Est. reading time

2 min

The first half of Alex’s pre-season testing programme drew to a close today, with three more days of preparation scheduled for next week.

Our Thai racer has now enjoyed a trio of stints behind the wheel of Atlassian Williams Racing’s new FW48, following this afternoon’s latest session in Sakhir.

Today’s running yielded a P11 finish and a best lap time of 1:36.793 , after 78 laps of the Bahrain International Circuit.

A distance of 422 kilometres also adds to a healthy total across the week, building on productive outings during Wednesday and Thursday.

Albono kicked things off with a top time of 1:37.437 — and a P10 placing — over 68 laps on Wednesday afternoon, before racking up another 62 laps the following morning.

Thursday’s best lap time of 1:37.229 (P9) then saw both AA23 and the team gather more valuable learnings, to help optimise the car for the campaign ahead.

In total, Alex amassed 208 laps and 1,125 kilometres on track in Bahrain, with more to come during next week’s second Test.

And the 29-year-old has been satisfied with the progress made since arriving at the Middle Eastern venue, as he explained when speaking after Day 2’s session:

“I think we’re now understanding a little bit more about how to drive these cars,” he said.

“It’s tricky out here, it’s been very windy. The wind has died down right now, but it has mostly been very windy.

“[It has been a case of] Going through a checklist, basically, and we’re learning a lot.

“I think there’s obviously a lot of focus for Carlos [Sainz] and I on our driving — the littlest things you could imagine, but [focusing on] the out laps, cool down laps and how you optimise these cars in terms of your driving style.

“But then there’s this whole other side of it, which is obviously about optimising the car and collecting the data that we need.

“So it’s been busy, and we’re obviously playing a bit of catch-up right now, compared to our rivals — but we’ve had a fairly smooth two days so far, touch wood.

“We’ll keep going and see how tomorrow goes, and the rest of pre-season testing.”

Join us on the AA23 website and app next week for more updates and reaction, as the build-up to the 2026 season continues with more testing from Wednesday 18th - Friday 20th February.