F1 | Williams loses his superpower: he no longer flies on the straights

Williams presented itself at the starting line for the 2024 season with a car considered better than the one that led it to finish seventh in the Constructors' World Championship last year, but the first two outings in Sakhir and Jeddah seem to have given results very different from those expected.

Neither Alexander Albon, nor Logan Sargeant, have yet scored points, while a direct competitor such as Haas managed to do so in Saudi Arabia thanks not only to very effective team play, but also to a much more competitive VF-24 even in race compared to last year's single-seater.

Furthermore, at Williams, the lack of a characteristic that until last year had been one of the keys to finishing ahead of AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo and Haas in the Constructors' World Championship was noted: top speed in a straight line.

This year the FW46 seems to be much faster in corners, but it has lost the “superpowers” that made it fearsome on the straights both in the attack and defense phases during the race.

“We don't have the straight line speed that we had last year, so actually it's really difficult for us to overtake,” Alexander Albon said after analyzing the first two races of the season.

“I was quite surprised by the race in Jeddah. I had to do all my overtaking in corners, which is not normal for me! It was interesting. But when I was in the train with the DRS it was impossible to do it.”

“When the train expanded, I managed to pass a car without DRS. But it's frustrating, because in the end our pace was good but we didn't have the weapons to overtake.”

According to Albon, Williams has created a better car than the 2023 one, but the team will have to work to unlock the potential it thinks it sees in the current single-seater and will have to do so as soon as possible, even if the Thai speaks of 6-7 races before see concrete fruits.

“We know that we have unexpressed potential in the car, but we can't access it because we have problems that we know well. It's a shame, because in Jeddah we could have brought home some points.”

“So we'll see in the next races. The start of the season was below our expectations even though we have a better car than last year. But everyone managed to improve. I was very surprised by Haas: they are very competitive .

“For our part, as mentioned, we know what our problems are. We know that there is lap time to find and we know how to do it. We hope to be able to get there over the next 6-7 races and develop the car better than ours opponents”.