Following a rules overhaul, the 2026 F1 pecking order has been shaped significantly by the accelerated development race playing out behind the scenes.
Speaking to media, including Autocar India, ahead of the Bahrain GP in Malaysia, Atlassian Williams F1Team driver Alex Albon says the rate of development is faster than he’s ever seen before in his career. But rather than keeping pace, the team has decided to stop bringing upgrades this year and, instead, invest its resources into building a stronger car for 2027.
Alex Albon on F1 2026 development war
In previous years, upgrade packages typically delivered gains of a few hundredths of a second. But with teams still trying to understand the 2026 rules, McLaren boss Andrea Stella reckoned upgrades this year can deliver more - two to three-tenths of a second.
“We're seeing a huge difference. Even when I think about when the regulations changed in 2022, teams are just getting better at becoming more efficient with bringing upgrades to the car,” Albon said, adding that he believes the rate at which teams are progressing is “at least 3x of last year”.
The $215 million cost cap means teams have adopted varying strategies for how to roll out these upgrades. Ferrari has been quite aggressive with its chassis upgrades. Atlassian Williams, on the other hand, focused most of its resources on bringing one major upgrade package to Round 15 at Azerbaijan. The team has struggled with an overweight car and other performance issues in the first half of the 2026 season. The Azerbaijan upgrade package looked to address these issues and it appears to be a step in the right direction, delivering the team’s very first Q3 appearance of the season back at Baku.
Albon points out that the biggest is in the mid-field. “Last year and previous years that I remember my experience in Formula 1, it was always only the top three or four teams that were capable of achieving four or five big upgrades a season. And now you're actually getting midfield teams very close to achieving the same amount of development rate,” he shared.
“So, yes, it's been partly also why as a team we've been struggling a little bit, because we are now maybe at a similar pace to last year, which obviously is not enough.”
Atlassian Williams F1 Team switches focus to 2027
Atlassian Williams currently ranks ninth overall in the teams’ championship, ahead of Aston Martin and Cadillac. When asked about the team’s targets for the rest of the season, Albon said, “Truthfully, this year, we have calculations of our own development rate versus the top teams and the midfield teams. We know which rate we need to be at to be able to overtake them.”
But the team has decided to sacrifice its 2026 development to deliver a stronger car next year. “We know where we need to be starting next year at Race 1, which is the most important. The best way we can arrive to Race 1 next year competitive is to focus on next year. And that means not bringing upgrades for the rest of the year. That means all the simulator work that we're doing behind the scenes is now focused on next year's car,” Albon stated.
“We need to be very ambitious and very aggressive with the rate at which we're going to develop the car next year because the speed at which teams are able to progress is higher than ever,” he added.
Albon: Antonelli, Hamilton’s driving style better suited to new cars
Albon also admitted that this year’s cars, with a near 50:50 split between combustion and electric power, have forced him to rethink his own driving style. “I've had to change quite a lot,” he said. “I think it's been the single biggest change for me personally to adapt to a different set of regulations.”
He points to two main factors – the cars are now smaller and the tyres have changed significantly. “I think a lot of the drivers who push [at corner] entries – so if you think famously, someone like Lewis [Hamilton], I think Kimi [Antonelli] does a very similar thing – they're being rewarded. I think it's complicated, but basically, it's because the rear tyres are not as strong this year as they were in previous years, relative to the front tyres,” Albon explained.
“The other thing is obviously the deployment, which a lot of the deployment is down to the drivers –the way the driver downshifts and upshifts. Also, the way the driver brakes and the biggest factor is the way the driver goes on throttle.”
As for adapting his own driving style to suit the new cars, Albon said, “I wouldn't say it was conscious. In the very beginning, it was very difficult to understand. It was very against my personal driving style. We’re in October now, I only just feel like I'm starting to feel natural in driving a car, which is a lot longer than it takes.”