F1 News: Alex Albon Urges Williams To Improve On This Area - "Get Rid"
Williams driver Alex Albon recently shared his comprehensive analysis of the team's progression and the challenges they faced, particularly focusing on the performance quirks of their car, the FW45.
Key Takeaways:
- Albon's Pivotal Impact: Albon was the linchpin in Williams' resurgence in 2023, responsible for nearly all the team's points. His performance was a cornerstone in Williams achieving its best result in the constructors’ championship in six years.
- FW45's Dual Nature: The FW45 displayed remarkable capabilities in qualifying. However, it fell short in race conditions, plagued by inconsistencies and an imbalance that Albon referred to as 'extreme peakiness.'
- Outlook and Development Strategies: Looking forward, Albon emphasised the need for rectifying longstanding weaknesses in the FW45. He expressed optimism about the team's development strategy, hoping for significant advancements in the upcoming season.
Alex Albon opened up on the transformative journey of Williams Formula 1 Team during the 2023 season. Despite the British team making significant improvements from 2022, they did still struggle with some reliability issues. The FW45's race day performance often contrasted its qualifying prowess. Albon explained:
“I would say we spent a lot of this year figuring that out because the more we can figure this out, the more it’s gonna help us next year,” the 27-year-old said at the Abu Dhabi finale.
“What’s obvious for us is our car has a big personality in some ways. It has one way that you need to drive it. And at the same time, there are corners that suit it and corners that don’t suit it.
“The peakiness of the car is pretty extreme in some places.”
At tracks like Las Vegas, Williams leveraged the FW45's qualifying strengths, yet this often led to compromised race performance. Albon's technique of aggressive rim heating proved advantageous for qualifying but detrimental in the race, as evidenced in Las Vegas, where he and Sargeant fell behind their qualifying positions.
“[Las Vegas], we ran pretty aggressive rim heating to get the tyres to work for the cold track temperatures, it’s what gave us a great result.
“P5, P6 [ in Las Vegas qualifying] but our car was not P5, P6 on paper. It was maybe P9, P10 and likely we compromised too much of the Sunday car for Saturday."
Albon contrasted the FW45's performance in Monza, where its strengths were maximised, against its struggles in Brazil, highlighting the car's limitations in different conditions. This disparity showcased the FW45's inherent inconsistencies and the team's need to address them.
“We all went into Sunday and within three laps, I was overheating the tires. So, that’s where you see these elements where it can happen generally though Saturday to Sunday we’re quite consistent.
“If you look at, let’s say Brazil compared to Monza, it’s exactly these kinds of issues which we’re trying to fix. There are corners in Brazil, there’s maybe four of them that we’re losing a tenth and a half in each corner and we can’t get around them.
“We can’t stop front locking, we can’t stop understeering off the track. And then at the same time in Monza, we don’t really have a limitation in the car.
“It doesn’t seem to hurt us because a lot of the breaking is straight line, you don’t need to combine too much. And so that’s where you see peaks because our car has good qualities and bad qualities.”
Looking ahead to 2024, Albon concluded:
“Our job next year is to get rid of them [recurrent weaknesses] as much as we can. That’s been in the car for the last 5/6 years and hopefully next year we can finally make some inroads in it.
“But being honest with you from last year to this year, the car characteristic never really changed that much. It’s just we added more downforce to it.
“At the same time, we’re pretty self-confident in ourselves that we’ve done the right thing and we’ve talked about it enough but we have stopped our development for a long time now and if we lose out for what we’re focusing on for next year, it’s not going to be a kicking ourselves moment. I do think we’re gonna see the rewards next year.”