Chinese GP: Tough Sprint Qualifying for Williams F1


By Williams Racing
March 13 2026

It would be a disappointing one hour of practice for the Atlassain Williams F1 Team as they got ready for the Sprint Qualifying later in the day. What would follow in the Sprint Qualifying would be equally as disappointing with Carlos Sainz only managing 17th and Alex Albon 18th. Both would end their session out in SQ1. Combining everything it was such a tough day for the team. Based on the teams Australian experience this result was not totally unexpected. The team can only hope to use the Sprint as a test session for qualifying and Sunday's race, as the prospects of a result in the Sprint are very limited.

 
 Atlassian Williams F1 Team Chinese GP Sprint Qualifying Review
 
Albon
 
Albon

Alex Albon:
"It’s been a confusing day and clearly this isn’t the result we wanted out of Sprint quali. We have multiple limitations at the moment we are trying to understand so we need to go back to the drawing board and get a clearer picture ahead of tomorrow. As always we’ll give everything we have in front of the Chinese fans for tomorrow’s Sprint race and qualifying sessions."

Sainz

Carlos Sainz:
"This weekend was always going to be difficult for us with this circuit exposing the weaknesses in our car. Missing half of FP1 didn’t help either, as I couldn’t prepare properly for this session and had to adapt every lap. As it stands, we first need a clean weekend before aiming for better results. I'll use this weekend to test different setups and try to make up for the track time I’ve lost so far. The target is to maximise our performance and keep gathering learnings to help the team."

 Vowles

James Vowles Team Principal:
"Tough day, which isn’t a surprise after Melbourne, but doesn’t hurt any less as a result. This evening will be about reflection and looking at what other approaches we can do to make sure we maximise the opportunities across the remainder of the weekend, and looking at how we might be able to extract more out of this car before we bring performance to it."

 
Sainz
 
Albon
 
Shanghai International Circuit, China Lap Length: 5.451km
Pos Driver Team SQ1 SQ2 SQ3
17 C Sainz Williams Racing 1:34.761 - -
18 A Albon Williams Racing 1:35.305 - -
 
FW48
 

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