The Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil was much more disappointing for Williams than initial expectations. The track, dedicated to the memory of Carlos Pace, was among those marked red on the calendar by the Grove team, who hoped to be able to bring home more points and secure seventh place in the Constructors’ World Championship. But it didn’t go exactly like that.
The hopes of bringing home points lasted just over 100 metres, those made by Alexander Albon after the start of the Sunday race, before being involuntarily hit by Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas F1, which in turn was hindered by Kevin Magnussen’s twin single-seater first of the downhill left-hand curve.
The contact between the cars led Albon to spin Magnussen’s car, only to crash violently into the barriers on the outside of the straight. At the end of the race, Albon returned to the incident that saw him exit the race too early, complaining about having made another great start which, however, was of no use. In fact, it even turned out to be harmful.
“In the last three races we managed to make excellent starts. I’m talking about Mexico, the Sprint Race and the long race in Sao Paulo. Three super starts one after the other. Sometimes it works well and leads you to have advantages as happened in Mexico, while other times it literally goes against you as happened in the long race in Brazil. So it’s frustrating.”
“I don’t think we could have done anything differently. I tried to stay as far to the right as I could. I think there was a Haas on the left that was caught off guard. At that point it moved to the right and crushed the other Haas ( that of Hulkenberg, ed.) and then the contact occurred.”
“It was unfortunate, because races like this are what we don’t want: there’s a Ferrari out, Ricciardo is one lap away even though he had an incredible pace and Piastri was also one lap away. He was there the possibility of taking points and these are usually the races in which we do well. But if we go like today, we open the doors for our rivals to recover in the Constructors’ World Championship.”
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-23, Alex Albon, Williams FW45, crash at the start
In the accident that brought him into the barriers, Albon ended up hitting his head (probably against the side headrest or the steering wheel) due to the force of the impact.
“As for the accident, the impact was very strong. It’s never nice to hit your head. Because it’s obvious, that movement I made is never nice. But I’m fine. More than anything, I’m frustrated for having started well. I mean, if we could stay in front of the two Haas, which we knew were the two main traffic-creating obstacles, we would have had a good chance of scoring points. In those first 100 meters it looked like things were going right “.
Returning to the sporting question linked to the race, Albon then admitted that in Brazil and in the last 2 races of the season it will not be so important that Williams scores points, but that AlphaTauri, the main rival of the team directed by James Vowles, does not take enough points to overtake it in the rankings. To date, between the two teams, there are 7 points in favor of Williams.
“The most important thing, more than us scoring points, was to make sure the others didn’t score points. So, if I couldn’t score points, I would have had to hinder the right people. I’d rather Alfa Romeo score points than AlphaTauri. So let’s cross paths fingers…”.
Las Vegas, the next race and penultimate event of the season, will be the last shot available for a points finish for Williams. The characteristics of the track – not all, but most – should be sufficient to guarantee a high level of competitiveness to at least see Albon in the Top 10 at the end of the race.
“The Las Vegas race could help us. The only thing that perhaps won’t go well are the corners with combined braking. There are some corners, I can’t remember them now, which shouldn’t be very suitable for our car. For example, turn 6 and turn 11. But otherwise the track, cold and with little downforce, should be good for us”, concluded the Thai.
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