Williams admits FW48 overweight; upgrades planned

Williams acknowledged that the FW48 suffered persistent performance problems in the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, with the car judged overweight, notably short of downforce and afflicted by recurring balance faults including a handling symptom described as “three‑wheeling.” The team estimated the weight penalty at roughly 20–25 kg, while other reports put the required reduction at about 65 pounds; drivers and engineers agreed that weight alone did not explain the deficit.

Those weaknesses translated into poor track results: Williams occupied the bottom six positions in Chinese Grand Prix qualifying and recorded a double SQ1 exit in sprint qualifying. Carlos Sainz qualified 17th, missing Q2 by about 0.2s, and Alex Albon qualified 18th, around 0.5s slower than his teammate. In the Sprint, Sainz climbed from P17 to P12 on a no-stop hard-tyre strategy and set the Sprint fastest lap, while Albon, who started from the pit lane after overnight setup changes, finished P16. Albon called qualifying “terrible,” said the team “haven’t been able to fix our core issues” and described the result as “back to the drawing board,” while Sainz warned there were “many issues” carried over from Australia and said he was “a bit down on mileage.”

Team principal James Vowles described qualifying as “painful,” noted only small overnight gains from tweaks and emphasized that substantive improvement will come through a planned long-term development programme rather than weekend fixes. Williams admitted it sacrificed 2025 development work and, despite an early commitment to the 2026 regulations, has had a difficult start to the season; the team plans to continue testing measures across race weekends while pursuing weight reduction, balance improvements and significant aerodynamic upgrades to restore competitiveness.