F1 | Albon without points: “Frustrating not to take advantage of opportunities”

Williams' Australian weekend is certainly not one that will be remembered for long. Or rather, it will probably be kept in mind but in a negative way, as a sort of reminder about mistakes not to be made again in the future.

The Grove team showed up in Melbourne without a third chassis, which is quite unusual for a Formula 1 team which, a month after the start of testing, usually arrives with at least one escort to counter emergencies. Furthermore, the fact that two of the first three rounds of the world championship were held on city tracks should have further raised attention on the topic.

Williams tried to defend itself by indicating that this was a gamble, due to the fact that it had delayed the construction of the chassis as much as possible, although it remains truly unusual not to have stocks. For this reason, after Alex Albon's accident in FP1 which damaged the bodyshell, the Grove team chose to entrust Logan Sargeant's car to the Anglo-Thai driver, in the hope of being able to fight for points.

After an overall positive qualifying, which ended with a solid twelfth place, the objective was to take advantage of the opportunities and race episodes to get into the fight for the top ten. With five top teams, the opportunities to reach the points are often limited, which is why it is necessary to make the most of all the chances, as Haas did well in both Saudi Arabia and Australia. In fact, after the retirements of Max Verstappen and both the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, three positions opened up in the top ten, leaving room for as many cars in the midfield.

Yuki Tsunoda capitalized fully on their misfortune, finishing in eighth place, which later became seventh thanks to Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso's post-race penalty. Both the Haas cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10, leaving Williams, Alpine and Sauber empty-handed after three grands prix.

Albon finished eleventh in the wake of Magnussen, which added to the frustration, especially bearing in mind that Williams had managed to complete an undercut on the Dane at the end of the first stint.

“It was a frustrating race because our rivals gained points. We need these races when three cars from the top teams retire. We have to take advantage of it and unfortunately we didn't succeed. We didn't have the pace on the track that we hoped to have,” he said. said the representative of the Grove team, who already in Saudi Arabia had badly digested the fact of not having beaten a very defensive Magnussen, thus preventing Haas from reaching tenth place.

Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24, Alex Albon, Williams FW46

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Also weighing on his situation is the fact that, to overcome the graining that penalized many riders over the weekend, Albon had to make significant changes to the balance to save the front tyres. Over the weekend there were teams that had problems with the front end, others with the rear: Williams suffered with graining management, especially the most advanced axle, which is why they had to try to work differently than usual. A similar problem had already occurred last year in Las Vegas when, after a good qualifying, the two English single-seaters then struggled in the race.

“Every time I had to match the pace of the cars around me, I had graining and destroyed the tyres. When I could set my pace, I was fine, but I was about three and a half tenths behind the others. We had to change the balance because the The front tires were slipping too much. At a certain point, the balance becomes terrible and you slip on the rears but the fronts continue to grain.”

“It was a difficult weekend for all of us at Williams. I think in some ways we fought quite well, considering everything that happened. Everyone on the track worked hard and, as I said before, that's not how we want to race Obviously the one in FP1 was a bad mistake on my part. But given the situation, in qualifying we did very well, while in the race, however, we didn't have the pace. We hope to be more competitive in Japan. There I will lap with my chassis, while Logan will get his car back.”