Williams had one of their most impressive weekends in recent years at the Canadian Grand Prix as Alex Albon drove superbly across the event to bag six crucial points for the teams in the Constructors’ Championship on Sunday.
Starting P9 on Sunday, Williams put the Thai driver on a bold one-stop strategy after an early Safety Car to clear the debris from George Russell’s impact with the wall at turn 9.
From there, Albon’s race was all about making it to the end and defending for dear life. With Russell’s crash and Stroll’s underwhelming performance, the 27-year-old found himself in P7 because his main rivals on the day pitted for a second time.
In the closing stages, he had a train of Ocon, Norris, Bottas and Stroll. However, Albon made no mistakes and brilliantly fended them off to secure a brilliant 7th.
Williams team principal James Vowles says Albon was a totally deserving recipient of ‘Driver of the day’. The Brit went on to explain how impressed he was by the defensive qualities shown by his driver.
“It’s hard to put in words. When you’re watching from even where I am sat — I got to watch the cars exit the last corner — 4 tenths is nothing.
“That’s where he had a car behind him for nearly the whole race, and he dealt with the pressure that he had perfectly. Not a single foot wrong.”
Williams brought a sizable upgrade package to Canada for Albon’s car only. Changes were made to the Floor Body, Coke/Engine Cover, Sidepod Inlet, Halo, Rear Suspension, Rear Corner and the Rear Wing Endplate.
While the updates clearly worked well and gave them valuable lap time, Williams showed their worth as a team on the pit wall as well. A great call in Q2 to use the soft tyres during a very brief period where the slicks were faster allowed Albon to top the session.
Although Vowles wanted to remain realistic about where they are in the pecking order, he is pleased with how the team is working as a unit.
“I think the team is doing a really good job with the package it has.
“We have to be realistic. We were fastest yesterday because we got some decisions right. We were on the right strategy [in the race] because we made some good decisions.
“But the team is working well together and more importantly, the big upgrade brought to the car is delivering performance. That’s what you need.”
Williams moved past AlphaTauri and into 9th in the Constructors’ Championship. They now sit on seven points, just a single point behind Haas and two away from Alfa Romeo.
Vowles says consistently adding a little bit of performance can make all the difference in what is a really close fight in the battle for 7th in the championship and criticial extra prize money for teams like Williams.
“As long as you can keep delivering small amounts of performance and a step forward in terms of your competition, you have the opportunity to score points which leads to championship positions. It’s so tight.
“You look at where we are in the championship now — okay we’re 9th — but there’s two points separating three teams.”
Even a rival boss was impressed by the performance Williams produced in Canada. Andrea Stella complimented the Grove-based team on the updated package they had in Montréal and gave one example of where he felt they made a gain.
“Albon, in fairness, if you look at his medium tyres in FP3, practice two, he’s one of the most consistent and stable. So definitely they have made a step forward.
“[I’m] more than impressed, I think it confirms not only that Williams has these good characteristics of top speed, but I think in this weekend they also made their car quicker – because otherwise, the top speed is not enough.
“If we see the traction out of corner 10, you can have that traction only if you have grip. This is independent of your straight-line speed, so it’s good for them, and we hope we can make similar steps of lap time in the future.”
Photo credit: Williams Racing
