Williams’ Alex Albon reflects on a strong performance over the British Grand Prix weekend, netting a crucial 2 constructors’ championship points for the Grove based outfit at their home Grand Prix.
Alex Albon enjoyed a weekend of success at the British Grand Prix, from a solid performance to nab P9 in qualifying on Saturday afternoon, to his fight back during the Grand Prix on Sunday to regain his starting position and earn 2 crucial championship points.
Speaking after qualifying on Saturday, Albon expressed his surprise in the pace he was able to extract from the FW46 in order to split the two Aston Martin’s in Q3.
“It was a bit sketchy,” Albon joked following the session. “That weather always gets everyone on their toes. You always do a lap and you think ‘oh my God, that’s it, I’m out.’ We kind of held on through to Q3.
“I think I picked up a little bit of damage on my last Q2 lap, so we went into Q3 a little bit compromised, but nothing major. I’m not sure if P8 was on the cards but I’m very happy. I think after a tough few races we can enjoy that one.
“Our pace was not there all weekend. We were struggling with a certain balance limitation in the car. I think, to be honest, the track temps really helped us because the tyres were lasting so well around the lap which they weren’t doing on Friday.”
Starting from his P9 grid spot, Albon fell foul of contact with a charging Fernando Alonso from P10 early on lap 1, causing the Williams man to drop back and out of the points. A masterclass in mixed weather driving and well timed strategy calls from the team however, allowed him to fight back up the order and reclaim his position.
Speaking after the Grand Prix on Sunday, a jovial Albon told the media how much he had enjoyed the Grand Prix.
“It was good fun out there,” he said. “It was a race where we started off quite poorly – I had a decent start, but Fernando just had an even better one next to me. I don’t really remember what happened in Turn 3 but we made contact, [in] Turn 4 made more contact. [I] jumped to P12, I think it was, and then had to fight back.
“The rain was coming, so we always knew there was a chance to get back into the race and, once it fell and all the cars kind of started coming off the circuit and whatnot, you kind of lick your lips a little bit!
“It was inters, the final stint had really good pace, good strategy on the mediums, and [I] had a lot of fun out there. The car was really good at the end there, one of the best it’s felt in a long, long time. So, yeah, it was good fun.”
Reflecting on the team’s strategy when asked if the overall performance between driver, car and team allowed him to capitalise on the cars pace, Albon gave kudos to the strategy team.
He explained that their decision to fit medium tyres for the final stint allowed him to push while others struggled on the fragile soft tyre. The Thai breezed past Yuki Tsunoda and cleared off by over 10s when the chequered flag fell.
“Yeah, I knew straight away,” he replied. “I think on the inters we could have pitted one lap earlier, but it was always that kind of awkward threshold.
“We timed the second one perfectly, and also tyre choice. I think a lot of guys went on the softs as we went on the mediums, and it just meant I could push really hard for the 13, 14 laps left in the race. [I also] got Yuki [Tsunoda] under pressure a little bit, had a good fight with him.”
