Williams breathed a sigh of relief in Abu Dhabi as they held off a charging AlphaTauri in the closing stages of the season to seal 7th in the standings.
In Abu Dhabi, they had no control of their own destiny as they were unable to get into Q3 or interfere with Yuki Tsunoda’s race as the Japanese driver qualified a superb P6.
Although the AlphaTauri driver was able to prevail in qualifying and the race, he could only finish in 8th position, and the Williams team managed to defend its place by securing the 7th position in the Constructors’ Championship, three points ahead of its rival in the end.
The Japanese driver was on a one-stop but ultimately couldn’t hold off the likes of Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso.
“It was a tough race where we were just dependent on Yuki [Tsunoda]. Unfortunately, Yuki was too fast, so we could not have any involvement in his race because he was up the road from us.
“But fortunately for us, some of the quicker cars got past him so happy to cement that P7.”
Photo Credit: Williams Racing
Starting the race in 14th position and out of the points zone, a the lack of pace proved to be a tricky.
A bad start didn’t help either, dropping four spots.
“Straight into wheel spin and then went into more wheel spin and then really struggled in the beginning of a stint.”
The drivers were also accompanied by a strong wind early in the race, something which has hurt the FW45 throughout the season.
As the wind eased, Albon says his car came alive. By that point, it was too late.
“The wind was quite high, you know, in the first 20 laps of the race and it’s amazing how it frustrates our car. It makes it so much harder to drive so much more disconnected and then the wind died down and we changed tyres and then the car came alive and especially the final stint we were very strong.”
“But that’s kind of the sensitivities of our car. I feel like if we didn’t have that first stint, we could have been fighting for points.”
