Alex Albon started the United States GP from P14 on the grid, but his race nearly ended in Turn 1 on Lap 1 when he collided with the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, which also sent the Sauber of Valtteri Bottas into the back of the Williams after things checked up.
The incident caused damage to the front wing, as well as the diffuser. It had lasting effects throughout the race, so much so that Albon thought he would have to retire as points were never on after that.
“Down on load, particularly through left-handers, it was really bad.
“It was one of them races where I thought we were going to retire the car. I’m not too sure why we didn’t. I imagine maybe just to try to help Franco in his race, try to hold back some of the cars.”
During a segment of the “Vowles Verdict” posted on the team’s social media channels, Williams team principal James Vowles gave his view on the Lap 1 incident and its effects on Albon’s race.
“At the beginning of the race, it’s always a difficult moment, but in this particular circumstance, Valtteri effectively pushed into the back of Alex and broke the diffuser but then also pushed Alex forward into Esteban, which then broke the front wing. So effectively Alex was bridging between the two cars”
However, Bottas’s onboard camera shows that the contact between Albon and Ocon, which damaged the front wing of Albon’s car, occurred before the Sauber driver touched the rear of the Williams, causing additional damage to the diffuser.
Williams fitted a new front wing during the Safety Car period, but the damage to the underbody of Albon’s FW46 was ‘far more significant,’ says Vowles.
“The damage of the front wing, as you saw during that safety car period, we changed it. We stopped and made sure we fitted a fresh front wing to the car so that we could have removed that damage, but actually, the diffuser damage was far more significant and had two effects.
“One, just a loss of downforce that was fairly significant, but two, the balancing effect of that was very hard, and we couldn’t get the front wing to where we needed it to be to really give them the best car possible and for want of a better word now when you’re losing a few tenths from damage in a midfield that’s that close you’re really out of the fight.”
Clearly, it was not the race that the Thai driver would have hoped to have for his 100th GP in F1, where he ultimately finished in a distant P16. Albon summarised that the cupcakes he received in celebration of this milestone were probably the highlight of his weekend.
“The lemon cupcakes were okay, that’s about it. They were tasty. That was it.
“Not one to remember. I’m waiting for the second hundred.”
Looking back on the entire weekend, the Thai driver laments that the team’s struggles with the performance of the Pirelli tyres, especially the softest compound during qualifying that left him mid-pack off the start.
“I don’t know [if I would have come through like Colapinto].
“I think we were struggling on the softs all weekend. Couldn’t get the softs to work. Struggling a lot with locking. And that was it really. Honestly, the pace was okay. It was hard to know.
“I mean, the sprint race yesterday was not too bad. I think Franco had a decent pace today. I think the hards for us were a much better tyre than the mediums.
“I don’t know how it fell out for the cars. I think some teams prefer the mediums and some prefer the hards. It seemed this weekend like the harder the compound, the better it was for our car.
“So, we need to try to understand why that was. And yeah, I spent most of my race on mediums with damage. Lose-lose,” Albon said.
The differences in performance between tyre compounds can be observed on the entire grid, as we often see small gains or losses depending on the compound and the effect it has on who is ahead.
The Williams driver explains that a potential cause could be the increasing tyre pressures that has become a common theme in the Pirelli era.
“Well, we’re driving around now at extremely high pressures.
“Every weekend, every year they go up and up. At some point it almost feels like it’s hard to know. I don’t think teams understand it either.
“So, it’s one of them things. We can go from one session to the next, change compound and get more grip on a harder tyre and vice versa. It’s not that clear, I wish it was.”
After a subpar weekend in Austin, the Williams driver will look ahead to the upcoming Mexican GP in hopes of a better result. Last year, Albon finished the GP in 9th.
“Well, it was okay last year. We weren’t actually that bad.
“The one thing which […] we really need to understand is our locking on hards. It seems like in any big braking areas we really struggle with locking.
“And Mexico will be one of them tracks, even though it’s high downforce, it’s obviously low speed corners.”
Albon was also asked about the much-discussed incident between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris towards the end of the race for which the latter was given a 5-second time penalty which saw Norris finish behind Verstappen in P4.
“I saw it on TV a little bit. They were four seconds behind us. It was nice for the time being because I didn’t get blue flags.”
The penalty given to Norris caused quite a stir, as both drivers went off track, causing a debate on whether the penalty was warranted.
“Yes, that’s interesting. I thought normally if they both don’t make the track, I don’t know, that gets a bit grey. I would have imagined […] yeah, interesting.
“That reminds me of Brazil in 2021. I haven’t seen it.”
Regarding the guidelines and if you can divebomb to stay ahead at the apex, Albon says staying on track is key, although he had some questions about penalties given, such as the Piastri one against Gasly in the Sprint on the Saturday.
“I think if you make the track, yes.
“I think if you can stay on the track, fair enough, you’ve got it.
“But it’s not that clear, no. I need to review the passes this weekend, because I think some drivers, even in the Sprint race, Oscar and someone, they made the pass, the other car went off the track, they stayed on the track, and they still got a penalty.”
