Alexander Albon sees F1 2026 as an opportunity for a reset unlike Carlos Sainz, but he highlights the brutal timeline between two seasons.
After Sainz noted that it will be an unknown for a team like Williams under new regulations, teammate Albon sees it as an opportunity. The Spaniard thought the past regulation would have helped them build on the season gone by, but a new one will reset everything.
While Sainz sees the reset as a downer, Albon sees it as a chance to grow and start on the same ground as the F1 front-runners. “Improvement is a broad term, because I think if you want to take the driving side of things, it’s going to be challenging,” he said to media. “In terms of maybe the purist side of driving, less so, more complicated, a bit more unconventional in terms of how you approach the cars.
“But there’s also opportunity in that, and it’s going to be very challenging. I think no one really knows how the cars are going to feel truly, how it’s going to turn out next year, but there’s opportunity in it. I think maybe if you’re a team like McLaren, clearly these road changes are not desired, but for a team like us, where it feels like we’re just working our way towards the right environment, the right culture, to become closer towards the top team, this reset is opportunity, and I feel like it’s exciting for us, maybe more than it is for other teams,” summed up Albon.
The Thai sees the short break as brutal and turnaround a short one from 2025 to 2026 start. He feels that the team will have to be tactful how to go about racing and handling everything. “It’s brutal if you want it to be, right? I don’t think it’s enough,” continued Albon. “I think I had seven days off.
“We finished mid-December, we did some work, the Christmas parties and all this kind of thing. And then we went to the factory and then I went for seven days, I came back, I did Christmas with my family. And then on the 27th of December, I started my training camp. And January 5th, so for January we were back in the factory.
“So, yeah, not a lot of time to rest, I think the energy management in 2026 is going be so important. I think the teams are going really have to respect that we have…be quite tactically how we go into the year. Because it’s busy from testing, busy from such a short turnaround, yeah, it’s going to be tough,” summed up Albon.
The Thai got extended time off to relax after Williams decided to pull out from the ongoing Barcelona shakedown. There are reports of overweight and crash tests, but nothing has been made official. The team has opted for a virtual test run, with the aim to start on-track testing Bahrain. The launch event on February 3 has been changed to mere online reveal.
Here’s Williams drivers on skip news
Here’s news from Williams on skipping Barcelona shakedown
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