Report: Difficult afternoon in Austria

A challenging afternoon sees Alex with limited opportunities to move forward through the field

Published

28 JUN 2026

Est. reading time

2 min

Alex Albon faced a difficult weekend in Austria, with Atlassian Williams F1 Team not bringing any updates to the car. With the midfield being so competitive, Alex finished in P17, just one place ahead of where he qualified.

The Williams driver had a clean start on medium tyres, and had an early wheel to wheel battle with Sergio Perez for P17. The Cadillac driver was then forced to retire from the race due to smoke in the cockpit.

Looking to progress through the field, Alex pitted on lap 18 for another fresh set of medium tyres. After his pitstop, Alex dropped to P20, however he was quickly back to P18 after overtaking Lance Stroll and a pit stop from Franco Colapinto.

On lap 25, we were under Virtual Safety Car conditions after Carlos Sainz came to a stop on the main straight. Racing promptly resumed and Alex continued battling before coming back into the pits on lap 38 to switch onto the hard compound for the remainder of the race.

Alex moved up into P16 as the drivers ahead continued to pit. He managed to hold this position until lap 50, when the Thai driver was overtaken by Colapinto.

A brief VSC neutralised the field on lap 53 after Alex collided with a bollard at turn 3 – marshals quickly collected the debris and the racing resumed.

For the remainder of the race, Alex was slowly gaining on Esteban Ocon, but blue flags hampered his progress and ultimately finished just 2.150 seconds behind the Haas.

“It’s been a poor weekend overall,” Alex shared, adding: “We simply did not have the pace to compete with the midfield.

“We struggled with tyre deg and lacked pace throughout the medium and high-speed corners, so there is plenty to analyse ahead of the next race. We are currently experimenting and covering every avenue to find performance before our upgrades arrive.

“Looking ahead to Silverstone, we’ll bring a small upgrade package that we hope will move us closer to the likes of Haas and VCARB, so we’re hopeful these updates will be the start of us moving in the right direction."