Speaking at Grove on Monday as part of the Williams Racing 2023 Season Launch and during a virtual press conference with select media which included PitDebrief.com, Alex Albon outlined his expectation for the coming year after a season previously described as ‘his best’ in Formula One.
Alex Albon’s performance in 2022 saw him make it into the points on three occasions. A memorable P9 in Melbourne along with P10 at the inaugural Miami Grand Prix and then the same result around the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps were clear highlights of an inconsistent season for the team.
Williams Racing finished P10 in the 2022 F1 Constructors’ Championship with 8 points and trailed 9th placed AlphaTauri by 27 points. The challenge ahead is obvious and Alex Albon is ready to take on the team leader role which many in the media have labelled him with.
“It’s not something where you stand up and say I’m the team leader, it just of evolves to be that way with experience…I do want to put myself in a position where I am really getting hands dirty and involved in all the situations where I can help develop the car and really pushing the areas that I feel are limiting us in terms of performance.” said Albon.
Clear communication between Alex Albon and his rookie teammate Logan Sargeant will be vital for Williams Racing to have any chance of developing the FW45 throughout the season. Albon described, during the launch, what he feels the working relationship between the two racers will be like.
“Obviously, Logan’s coming in with fresh experience or let’s just say, less experience than someone like myself,” claimed Albon “But it’s kind of just trying to keep it real. A lot of it is just trying to work together. We’ve got a long road ahead, realistically speaking. We’ve driven the sim now for a month, we’re making inroads. The main thing is that feedback is the same, we’ve got similar areas that we want the car to improve in. So, we’ve been chipping away at it.”
Alex Albon has previously claimed that his 2022 season with Williams Racing was ‘a very positive year’ and his ‘strongest year in F1’. The cause could easily be identified as a result of his well documented break from Formula One in 2021 which is still recalled today.
The Thai racer explained how “A year away can really kind of give you that headspace to firstly analyse and reflect on why did it not work…in the first four months it was what areas do I need to improve on and how?”
Formula One is a sport where there are so many variables to impact on track performance and little gains that can be found through technical tweaks. Alex Albon explained that as much as expectation will always be there he is still pragmatic about the task ahead.
“Regarding correlation or setup, only Bahrain will really tell. But in terms of expectation, I think we can have a good platform to start on…it’s hard to say just because of course we can say we’ve made a better car than we had last season but everyone has.” Albon said.
One would imagine that every Formula One fan is awaiting the day when Williams Racing are back battling at the front. There is no reason to expect that in 2023 – but the trajectory is clear, the team onboard are committed and the driving talent is evident. As to how improved the FW45 may be compared to 2022’s FW44 remains to be seen. Even so, Alex Albon reflected on that fact reminding people that “Despite the car not being the most competitive last year, it still felt a nice easy car to get to grips with. Let’s see what happens this year.”
We don’t have to wait long to see what the FW45 is capable of but you can imagine that if there are loose points to be found on race day – Williams Racing will be poised to gather them.
Picture credits: Williams Racing
