Report: Silverstone Struggles

Opening lap contact causes an early end to Alex’s race

Published

05 JUL 2026

Est. reading time

2 min

Alex Albon endured a challenging weekend at Silverstone, with the Atlassian Williams Formula 1 Team driver facing setbacks in both the Sprint race and the Grand Prix.

The Thai driver qualified in P16 for both races, however due to set up changes, he started the Sprint from the pit lane.

After just two laps, Alex made his way up into P19 with an overtake on Lance Stroll and other drivers running wide. Another swift overtake put Alex into P18, directly behind his team mate. For the remainder of the 17 lap race, he remained in the same position, ultimately finishing in P18.

The Grand Prix saw Alex starting on the eighth row of the grid. Unfortunately, during the first lap, contact with Oliver Bearman going into turn 6 left Alex with front wing damage and a front right puncture. Alex had to make an earlier return to the pit lane than anticipated, while the incident at Brooklands resulted in a 10-second time penalty.

Alex rejoined the race at the back of the field in P22 and almost a lap down, this time on hard tyres. Lap 15 saw him pitting for new medium tyres and to serve his time penalty.

After a brief VSC, Alex stopped for a third time, with the team ultimately deciding to use the remainder of the race as a testing session.

Following further pit stops for used tyres and front wing adjustments, Alex retired from the Grand Prix on Lap 45.

“Unfortunately, we had a bad start and made a mistake on lap 1 that resulted in front wing damage, so we had to pit early,” he shared.

“After that, we were caught in a blue flag chain and weren't able to catch up to the pack, so we pivoted and used the rest of the race as a testing session to gather more data on the front wing upgrade we brought this weekend.”

“Test sessions seem to sum up our season so far, but we're focused on gathering as much data and understanding as we can so that when we bring upgrades later in the season, we'll be in a better position. It's frustrating, but we'll debrief and look ahead to Spa in two weeks."