Williams 'isn't there yet'

Williams is rebuilding and the 2024 season is proof. James Vowles, the team director, has already explained it: Grove is trying to reinvent itself in the long term in order to return to the front of the grid within a few years. However, given the results of the last campaign – ninth in the constructors' championship having only managed to beat the very struggling Stake team – the road still seems long.

Alexander Albon says it himself: Williams was unlucky in 2024. Indeed, the circumstances did not work in the English's favor. However, the single-seater did not help as the team arrived at pre-season testing with a car that was far too heavy. Ultimately, it was this delay in development during the winter that penalized the British team the most throughout the year.

“I think it's easy to look at the second half of the year and think that we had a really difficult season and that we went through a complicated period. But I see it more as if we missed the boat at the beginning of the year”Albon said at a press conference in Abu Dhabi.

“I see us more like Aston Martin, where we could and should have scored a lot of points early on, if we had had the right weight and everything else, we really would have… I think we would have scored a lot of points quite early and then we would have had this intermediate period with developments on our car.”

“We'd be pretty much where we are today, which is we've taken the weight off and the car is performing well. I think our best period was the middle of the season , Monza, Baku, Singapore, where our car was fast, and [ensuite] Everyone caught up with us.”

“But in the midst of all that, we also had a lot of bad luck and problems, a lot of accidents too, to be honest, but [la question du poids] was the central point. In a lot of ways, I feel like it's more of a missed opportunity at the start of the year than anything else.”

According to some estimates, Williams would occupy the sad first place in the ranking of the teams having suffered the most damage this year, with more than 14 million dollars in damage over the season, far ahead of the second in the ranking, Red Bull (6.4 million dollars). The Grove team also has 11 retirements this season.

However, despite the difficulties encountered, Albon does not give up. He talks about “step back to jump better”aware that the journey to the front of the grid cannot be done without hitches.

“We are going through a period of growth”he added. “I don’t think there’s an expectation that there will be a lot of changes within the team and that everything will work perfectly, without being behind at the start of the year.”

“I think that's part of the reality. Of course, we would have preferred not to be in this situation, but we were. I don't think it will happen again next year. We have a good handle on the situation to the bottom line. There will always be challenges, but I feel like we've taken a step forward.”

“I call it stepping back to jump better. Today I think we took a step back and a step and a half forward. We kind of progressed from last year, but we still have need a little more, we're not quite there yet.”