Report: Difficult Hungarian GP weekend concludes
Atlassian Williams F1 Team head into the summer break on the back of a P17 and P18 finish at the Hungaroring
Published
26 JUL 2026
Est. reading time
5 min
Our tough weekend at the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix concluded with both cars seeing the chequered flag in P17 and P18.
Starting from P18 and P19, Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon both made clean getaways and gained a place on the opening lap as George Russell got bogged down at lights out.
It didn't take long for the Mercedes to make its way back through, and shortly afterwards the updated Aston Martin of Lance Stroll passed Alex into Turn 1.
Carlos, who had started on the soft compound, managed to keep the Aston Martin at bay until Stroll made his pit stop. As more drivers ahead began to stop, our duo cycled further up the order.
We were up to P15 and P16 when Carlos was told to box opposite Ollie Bearman ahead in search of the undercut. He pitted at the end of lap 19, swapping the softs for the medium compound.
With Alex extending his opening stint on the medium compound, his task switched to holding up the three cars behind him to allow Carlos to gain time. Our Thai racer, making his historic 100th start for the team, did exactly that for several laps before both Stroll and Franco Colapinto made their way through.
Alex stopped on lap 27 to fit the hard compound, and we settled into the second stint with Carlos in P18 and Alex in P20.
The leading pack soon started to make their way through, but issues with blue flag data were being reported to our duo. On lap 39, while battling the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, Carlos had Oscar Piastri in his blind spot and the pair made contact. Both drivers continued, but our racer was handed a five-second time penalty for the incident.
Carlos made his second stop on lap 44, serving his penalty before fitting the soft compound and rejoining in P19 immediately behind his teammate.
On lap 56, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed after Piastri pulled over with an apparent PU issue. Our pair were in the final sector when it was called, so we took the opportunity to double-stack them onto soft tyres for the closing laps.
They quickly set about reeling in Bearman and spent the final 10 laps on the Haas driver's gearbox. However, slower lapped traffic ahead of the British racer meant he was able to remain in overtake mode.
The Haas was carrying a five-second penalty for a blue flag infringement, and as the trio crossed the line in close formation, our pair moved up the order to take P17 and P18.
James Vowles:
“A tough day. We knew coming into this event that it would highlight all our weaknesses, and with the other developments we're working on to put ourselves in a stronger position out of the winter and into Baku, we knew we'd fall behind our competitors. That doesn't make today any easier. It's deeply frustrating to see our cars out there struggling with balance and not quick enough.
"Well done to Alex and Carlos - they've been immensely strong since the difficulties earlier in the season, right through to today, so thanks to them for their commitment to our ongoing journey.
“With Carlos, we should have done a better job of warning him about Piastri; we never want to interfere with the leaders, and we need to make sure we avoid that in future. With Alex, just a solid weekend - a real step up from him over his last few races, and it's great to see him able to deliver more and more each weekend
"On a positive note, the pit stops were good. We did our fastest one of the year, so that's progressing. And we're working on all the elements in the background: communications, aerodynamics, strategy - it's all levelling up. Now the car performance needs to match.”
Alex Albon:
"This has been a tough weekend for us - it was a real battle out there. We knew the track wouldn't suit us, and that it would expose our weaknesses. We've had balance issues all weekend, and we were very wind-affected today, with understeer and a lack of consistency throughout. I struggled to find a rhythm with the wind changing and the gusts. We know what we need to fix, and I think the work that's being done back at the factory is the biggest team effort I've seen to fight these issues. I believe we're doing the right things to get back on track - it's just a shame to be in this position in the first place. Hopefully we can take a good rest as a team and come back stronger post summer break."
Carlos Sainz:
“I was having a strong race today, racing with the Haas cars which were half a second quicker yesterday. There was an issue all race receiving information about blue flags and, during my battle with Fernando, Oscar appeared in my blind spot and unfortunately we made contact. The subsequent penalty and then double stacking during the VSC meant I lost some positions towards the last laps, but overall there wasn’t much more in it for us.
“Reflecting on this first half of the season, I'm happy with the consistency and pace I’m extracting from the car every weekend despite our struggles and, ultimately, we have a lot of homework for the second half of the year. The most important thing is to keep pushing together as a team like we are doing. We will reset during the summer break and come back stronger!"
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