F1 News: Alex Albon Pinpoints Issues In New Regulation Cars - "Further Away From Their Intention"

In an exclusive interview, the Williams driver talks about how these new regulations are creating a car that is more difficult to drive on the limit.

Talking to Sports Illustrated ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, Alex Albon pinpointed a number of issues with the current regulation cars. It's no secret that drivers are yearning for simpler machinery, with the British-Thai driver blaming these more downforce-efficient and heavy cars for the lack of action on-track.

The Florida race was hindered for a number of reasons. For one, the first two DRS zones were shortened, making it a lot more difficult for drivers who aren't in a Red Bull to overtake. On top of this, the off-line grip of the newly resurfaced track wasn't offering much in the way of traction, so having the freedom to move the car about and using different lines in corners didn't come easily to a lot of the drivers, especially in the first period of the race. 

"More than anything, I feel like the teams are getting better at adding downforce," Alex told me. "And as that happens, the cars are going further away from their intention and following is becoming harder and harder just because of the way that the teams are exploiting the rule book. 

"It's always gonna happen, and the side effect of cars adding downforce, they tend to become more sensitive and this is an example of that.

Reflecting on last year's rule changes after Mercedes' severe porpoising, Albon continues to add that this hasn't made it any easier for the drivers, especially when it wasn't necessary in the first place.

I think they all changed last year with the floor changing for this year, it hasn't really helped the situation. I personally believe by the end of last year, all the teams fixed the floor, so we didn't even really need rule change in the end. And now that we've done it, following's become harder."

I continued to push, asking if, similarly to the likes of Adrian Newey, he believes the size and weight of the cars were an influencing factor here:

"More than how big they are and the weight of them. So with heavy cars, that becomes a lot of energy on the tyres and the speeds are quite slow. Cars become quite sluggish. When you have a lighter car, you can stay closer behind the other car with less penalising on the tires.

"The cars are a bit more nimble so you can brake a bit later and a bit easier to do different lines and things like that. When you have a heavy car things start to be a little bit single-file.

"That's just stuff which, if we could, we would change for sure. I think if the cars were a hundred kilos lighter, the racing would be much better."