Despite the challenging circumstances throughout the weekend, Alex Albon put in a strong effort during the 2023 British Grand Prix as he finished a brilliant P8 on Saturday and Sunday.
Photo credit: Williams Racing
After qualifying eighth on Saturday during a mixed-weather qualifying, he managed to race both Ferrari cars and Perez’s RedBull on merit. An impressive result for Williams, who jumped onto the seventh position based on the Thai-British driver results alone, with his rookie teammate, Logan Sergeant, yet to score any points.
On his amazing form this weekend, finishing second in the first two practice sessions, he expressed his surprise at their pace, admitting that the Virtual Safety Car deployment when Magnussen stopped in his smoking Haas on Lap 33 left him the only driver that was in a position to react immediately and pit.
“Last week, [I was] a little bit unlucky, in the sprint race at least and then in terms of timing, it was perfect, I think we were planning to pit that lap anyway, and I was coming around the corner before the pitlane, turn 15, and the VSC came out, it couldn’t have been timed better.
“It was an amazing weekend, all weekend we’ve been, weirdly, P8 is actually the worst result we had, just shows you the pace we’ve had.
“Good race, I felt like the start we fell back a little bit, and then we’ve got into the race, bit by bit, by mid-race, we were still on the medium tyres and we were going strong, I had good pace in the car, I was feeling quite comfortable.
I thought we were going to go super long, and we planned that, then when the safety car came out it was a little bit of licking the lips, and the Ferraris were unfortunate with the compounds they were on.”
Photo credit: Williams Racing
Albon also fought hard to keep the position from Charles Leclerc whilst trying to overtake Alonso in the last few laps.
Detailing his strategy he added: “It’s tough because I’m trying to build up battery; this track is very battery-inefficient; you use a lot of battery down the straights and not much breaking to get the battery to recharge.
“So you’re trying to build it up to get ready to overtake Fernando because obviously, your eyes are forwards but in the same time you got Charles coming from the back, and you don’t want to risk all your battery into the one straight because if you do that you’re gonna be low on the SOC, and you’re gonna give Ferrari a pass.
“So you’re having to go and not go to make sure you’re not going super aggressive and losing it all. It was tough, and then in the last two laps the tyres were gone, and Charles was quick. So I’m glad it finished on that lap.”
