Williams battling bizarre problem with 2026 F1 car

Carlos Sainz looks down on a Reliant Robin — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

Williams battling bizarre problem with 2026 F1 car

Four wheels good, three wheels...worse

Chris Deeley

Tuesday 24 March 2026 15:58

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F1's new regulations may have people divided on the quality of racing, but one thing's for sure: we're hearing about exciting new car problems all the time.

We've had possibly the first ever instance in the sport's history of a car which vibrates so much that its drivers fear permanent nerve damage, and now we have a new contender from Williams that is going to trouble drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.

In short? When the FW48 goes around corners, the wheel with the least load has a habit of lifting off the ground. That, as you probably already assumed, is not a good thing. That's why nobody designs an F1 car to look like a Reliant Robin.

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Albon has been talking about his team's problems, discussing the car's well-publicised weight issues and admitting that the team are struggling to make improvements.

As he put it: "Nothing seems to fix the car."

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Albon: Williams issues not just down to excess weight

On the issues turning a multi-million pound car into a child's tricycle, Albon said: "We're going in areas that we've never been before. Nothing seems to fix the car. I'm sure the Cadillac is quicker than us in quite a few corners, so I'm just trying to figure out what's going on.

"The biggest problem at the moment is that the car is lifting on three wheels, so we just need to fix that. There are a lot of balance issues, we're also noticing a lack of downforce, so it's a combination of things."

He continued: "We can't hide behind weight because, ultimately, there are other cars that also exceed the weight limit on the grid. Certainly not as much as we do, but they are still overweight, and the deficit we have compared to these teams isn't solely due to that."

Remarkably for a team who had such a rough start to 2026 – beginning when they couldn't bring a car to some early pre-season testing – Williams have racked two points in as many races thanks to Sainz's ninth place in China.

Albon, notably, couldn't start that race due to a mechanical issue.

F1 Williams Alex Albon