Alex Albon frustrated as Singapore GP ruined by Williams ‘test item’ in unheard radio message

Follow us on Google Discover

Alex Albon endured a difficult weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix as Williams came away with just one point.

The Thai driver came into the weekend off the back of a tough race at Baku, where he could only manage 13th. Meanwhile, teammate Carlos Sainz scored his first podium for Williams, finishing a fantastic third after starting on the front row.

But Williams could not repeat that performance at the Singapore Grand Prix, as both cars were eliminated in Q2. Things got worse for the Grove outfit as Albon and Sainz were disqualified from the session for exceeding the 85mm limit on both sides of the rear wing outer area.

Sainz lined up in 18th while Albon started from the pit lane. The latter struggled to make up ground in the race and came home a disappointing 14th, while the former ran a long stint on the hards to finish in the points in 10th.

Alex Albon left frustrated over Williams ‘test item’ in unheard Singapore GP radio

It was a particularly frustrating afternoon for Albon, who got stuck in traffic and struggled to make up ground, especially with there being no safety car stoppages.

The Thai driver had been using a ‘test item’ during the Grand Prix, but it did not appear to bring him much success. Albon expressed his frustration to race engineer James Urwin and team principal James Vowles after the race.

Urwin came over the radio after his driver crossed the line: “OK, chequered flag. P14, P14. It’s difficult to make progress today but some nice overtakes.” Albon was not pleased with his driving as he replied: “No, I drove like s—, but it’s OK. Thank you.”

Vowles then said: “Thank you, Alex. Very much playing the team game there. I’m sorry we didn’t get points for you there, Carlos just picked up one, but well done, we had pace. Again, apologies for what happened, but we come together in Austin. Looking forward to these next few races.”

Albon then made his feelings known about the new part he tested: “Yeah, the test item is not the one,” to which Vowles responded: “Affirm, it’s still better to get rid of now, understand it.”

READ MORE: Williams star Alex Albon’s life outside F1 with net worth, girlfriend to parents

Alex Albon took ‘a lot of learnings’ from Singapore despite Williams test setup failure

Williams are fully focused on 2026 and the new technical regulations, thus bringing few new parts to the FW47. The upgrades they have brought in 2025 have been minimal, but it is clear that their Singapore setup was a failure.

Nevertheless, Williams remain in a good position in P5, and Albon learned a lot from the weekend in Singapore. He said after the race: “Starting from the pit lane today we knew it was going to be a bit of a test session for us.

“We did a test setup just for some learnings and it didn’t really work, but that’s okay as we can use that data for future races. We had good pace when we were in clean air, we just got caught up in some blue flags and were stuck in traffic for majority of the race.

“Even when we did have fresher tyres, we had to wait for the car in front to catch the cars further up, so it was just one of those races where we couldn’t do much, especially with no safety cars.

“There were a lot of learnings from this weekend, and we will look to tidy everything up for the next weekend out in Austin.”