Williams penned the most laps by any team at the first 2026 Bahrain pre-season test, but Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz’s runs on track left question marks about their pace.

It was key for Williams to complete some sustained running over the three-day test in Sakhir this week, after they skipped the entire Barcelona shakedown. Williams stated that “delays” with their 2026 car meant they could not make the trip to Spain due to a lack of spare parts.

Williams were the only team to miss the Barcelona shakedown, although Aston Martin were late to arrive. But the delay has not appeared to hurt Williams’ reliability, as the Grove outfit racked up the miles over two filming days before enjoying a productive first week in Bahrain.

Sainz registered the second-most laps by any driver with 214, just five fewer than his former Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, during the first Bahrain test. Albon also accounted for 201 of the 415 laps that Williams recorded to pip McLaren’s total of 414 in the desert this week.

Williams were ‘suffering’ grip problems due to their stiff set-ups at the first 2026 Bahrain test

But while the Williams FW48 might be reliable, the team are facing ‘bigger question marks’ about the pace of their car ahead of the second test in Bahrain next week. The Race claims Williams currently appear to be behind Haas and Alpine in the early midfield pecking order.

James Vowles led Williams to fifth place in the F1 constructors’ championship last year, but the team’s new car for the 2026 F1 regulations looks like an uncomfortable beast for Albon and Sainz to tame. Williams’ set-up decisions in Sakhir even appeared to be creating issues.

Albon and Sainz were left ‘suffering’ from a lack of peak grip during the first Bahrain test as Williams were running their car ‘stiffer than ideal’. Altogether, it left Williams lagging behind during the race simulations on Friday, with Haas and Alpine showing a clear lead over them.

Alex Albon’s race simulation at the first 2026 Bahrain test was 22.499s slower than Franco Colapinto’s

According to The Race, Albon had the sixth-best race simulation time at the first Bahrain test on Friday, although it excluded Haas driver Esteban Ocon from that ranking as he only did an eight-lap stint on the softest Pirelli tyres available followed by 12 laps with a set of mediums.

Ocon’s pace in the Haas VF-26 during his 16-lap run on the hard tyres was faster than what Albon achieved in the Williams FW48. Ocon averaged a 1:39.869 lap on the hard tyres over Albon’s averages of 1:43.074 and 1:41.754 over two equal runs of 17 laps on the hard tyres.

Franco Colapinto in the Alpine A526 completed an 18-lap run on the hard Pirelli tyres, with an average lap time of 1:42.285. The Argentine’s average lap time of 1:39.565 over a 13-lap run on a set of medium tyres also edged Albon’s average of 1:40.241 across an 18-lap stint.

Altogether, Colapinto’s race simulation during the first 2026 Bahrain test was 62.548s worse than the leading time that Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli achieved (46m, 24.611s). Albon would have finished one minute and 25.047 seconds behind Antonelli based on his race sim.