Timing is everything in car spotting. On September 11, two days before Formula 1 raced in Madrid for the very first time, spotter @Chimuelo found a Williams FW46 sitting on the tarmac by the new Madring circuit and logged a GRAIL-tier spot worth 1,814 points. Forty-two flames later, it's your Spot of the Week.
The right car in the right city
Look at the number on the nose: 55. That's Carlos Sainz — born in Madrid, racing for Williams since 2025, and this weekend driving a home Grand Prix that didn't exist until now. The car wears the team's current Atlassian colours with Gulf and Komatsu on the flanks, but the chassis underneath is the FW46, Williams' 2024 contender. That's the classic show-car recipe: last season's car, this season's livery, the local hero's number. For a spotter it makes no difference — an F1 car on a public street is an F1 car on a public street.
What the FW46 is
The FW46 was Williams' car for the 2024 season, powered by the Mercedes 1.6-litre turbo V6 hybrid — around 1,000 hp combined. It was raced by Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant, with Franco Colapinto taking over the second seat from the Italian Grand Prix onward. A hard year for the team — an overweight car, a spares crisis after early-season crashes — but also the last of the ground-effect era cars before the 2026 rulebook changed everything. Only a handful were ever built.
Madrid's first Grand Prix
The 2026 Spanish Grand Prix moved to Madring, a brand-new semi-street circuit around the IFEMA exhibition grounds on the north-east edge of the city. Race week turned the whole district into a paddock, and the teams brought their show cars out where anyone with a phone could get close. @Chimuelo was there with Carva open.
The numbers
- Season: 2024 — Williams' final ground-effect car
- Power: ~1,000 hp combined (Mercedes turbo V6 + hybrid)
- Drivers: Albon, Sargeant, Colapinto
- Number on this car: 55, Carlos Sainz
- Estimated value: $12,000,000
- Spotted: Madrid, Spain — September 11, 2026
Why it's worth logging
Grail is the second-highest of Carva's 12 rarity tiers, and Formula 1 cars almost never stand still in public. A race weekend is the exception — for a few days a year, the rarest machinery on earth is parked on a city street. 1,814 points from one shutter press. If a Grand Prix comes to your city, this is what to do with it.
Open Carva, point, shoot — next week this could be your spot. Download Carva