After the post-race disqualification of both Ferraris, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, and an Alpine, Pierre Gasly, Williams Racing secured double points in Shanghai, the 2025 F1 Chinese GP. Initially crossing the line in 9th and 13th, the two rose to P7 and P10, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, respectively.
The overall weekend at the Shanghai International Circuit demonstrated the importance of tyre management, making it more difficult for all drivers to have a sustainable race, including the Williams duo. Having detected the weakness and limitations of the FW47 in qualifying and the Sprint race, Williams made critical adjustments to the FW47. The set-up changes of the car garnered a better result for Albon in China.
Though Albon admitted that it wasn’t a dream F1 weekend for the Williams Racing Team, he expressed happiness in a post-race interview.
Strange race where Williams managed to catch up
The Thai driver reflected that although Shanghai was not a normal race, Williams performed well with their right tyre management strategies, which surprised many’s expectations. At some point in the race, Albon even led the race for a brief moment.
He managed to stay in the points without the effect of the three drivers’ post-race disqualification. Albon mentioned that he wasn’t able to execute a big much of a difference with the limited time he had. However, despite the inconsistent standings throughout the race, Albon caught up others and stayed within the points.
“[I am] Very happy. It was a strange race, because in many ways we were so comfortable on that first set, first in. We kind of called it ourselves because the hard tyre outperformed everyone’s expectations.
“We must only stayed out a bit too long. Because we were quick and we were catching the cars at the end of the race. But the deg wasn’t big enough that I couldn’t make the difference, really. So we did catch up, but still very happy.”
A step forward in Shanghai
Albon stated that the overall performance of the car felt like a step forward this weekend.
He admitted that Shanghai is traditionally not a strong F1 weekend for the Williams Racing team, but 2025 concluded with a rather optimistic result, with double points taken by the team.
The Thai driver emphasized their success by saying that they managed to score points even racing at a track which isn’t ideal for them.
“It does [feel like a step forward this weekend].
“It feels like we’ve come to a track that’s quite weak for our car historically. I still think it didn’t really suit us compared to Melbourne. But we’ve still got points out of the weekend, which is really important. Even on our weekend when it hasn’t felt perfect, it’s still a point scorer, which is just great news.”
Adjustments that understand the car
After analyzing the date from the Sprint Shootout and race, the Williams Racing F1 team made critical changes to the FW47 that led to taking a step forward in the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix.
Albon highlighted that they made adjustments that understood the nature of the car, which resulted in them having a good pace throughout the race.
“Also, I’m really happy with the team, the way that we came from yesterday.
“We were really struggling with the front tyres. We changed the whole philosophy of the car, had really good race pace, just shows that we’re understanding the car quite well.”
