Heading into the final race of the season at the Yas Marina Circuit, Alex Albon has stated that securing seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship will be the top priority for Williams this weekend—but added that the team won’t be “kicking” themselves if they fall short.
The British team is currently sitting seven points ahead of eight-place AlphaTauri, meaning it will be all to play for at the upcoming round in Abu Dhabi—this marks a massive improvement over the previous year when Williams finished last.
Just last week, at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Williams achieved a season-best qualifying result, sensationally locking out the third row on the grid. Unfortunately this didn’t translate to results on race day, as both drivers ultimately failed to finish in the points.
However, Albon says he has no major regrets over how the Vegas race panned out as he expected the fight for P7 to go down to the wire either way.
Photo credit: Williams Racing
“I don’t think we missed an opportunity in Vegas,” he told the media at Yas Marina. “I don’t think points were really on the cards on Sunday.
“But of course, there was a hope of hanging on and desire to try and score points last weekend to try and take that pressure, and that possibility away from this weekend.
“But because we haven’t scored points, as you said, the possibility is still very, very much real.”
A higher finishing position means more prize money for the team—but Albon believes there’s something much more significant to be gained.
“In terms of finishing P7 to P8, I think…We can say it doesn’t really affect us, but of course, we’re racers, everyone’s a racer in the team,” he said. “We all care about what position we finish.
“That walk into the pit lane is a little bit too long at the minute and one position already makes a difference. So let’s see. But it will help the team. It will speed up the development of the team as well. At the minute Dorilton do put the cash in, and it would benefit everyone if they had to put it in a bit less.
“So, there’s a big drive and a big want this weekend to finish in P7, you know, it’s clearly on, it’s our number one priority coming into the weekend.”
Albon, who has contributed massively to the team’s points haul this year, admitted that regardless of what happens this Sunday, he’s “very proud of what we’ve achieved at the team.”
“I think about the races that we’ve scored points in… We haven’t had a smooth race where we’ve gone ‘That was nice’. I wish we’d had more of them.
“Unfortunately, a lot of them we have held up a bunch of cars behind us, which is what we’ve become renowned for.
“The car has improved a lot from last year, we’re going into every weekend feeling like there’s a chance to score points.
“But even in that case, our race pace has not always been that great, and yet we still come away with points. I have to say that on reflection, I’ve had a lot of fun moments from this year,” Albon admitted.
“I think Melbourne was the only race where I felt like I missed an opportunity to score points.
“But every other race we’ve done this year, when there’s been a chance, we’ve done it and I think that’s been the main difference against our rivals.”
With a successful season drawing to a close, Williams is already looking to the future. The team stopped bringing upgrade packages after Canada, opting instead to shift their focus to preparing the 2024 challenger.
Albon acknowledged that certain short-term sacrifices may pave the way for significant long-term advantages.
“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,” he said.
“I think we’re gonna see the rewards next year.”
