Alexander Albon has scored 12 of Williams F1’s 17 points in the constructors’ standings this year. The team finished isolated in 9th place… and especially made its mark by experiencing numerous accidents, most of them due to Logan Sargeant or Franco Colapinto… But Alexander Albon, the team leader, was not not innocent either.
When taking stock of this forgettable 2024 season, the Thai is therefore lucid and uncompromising. It hurts!
“My general opinion is that it’s a bit of a missed opportunity,” he declared. “It’s easy to focus on the end of the season and the accidents, but in reality we started with too heavy a car. We should have scored a lot more points at the start of the year. »
“We had just one update, which was a good development, and we kind of had a respectable middle part of the season. The plan was always to focus early on the next year and, at that point, a lot of teams passed us. »
“So if we had started stronger, like the Astons did, with a more promising start to the season and a drop in performance at the end, we would still have had a solid season, but that’s not what that happened. »
“I think our best period was in the middle of the season; Monza, Baku, a bit of Singapore, that’s where our car was doing well, and now everyone has caught up with us a bit. But we also had a lot of bad luck and a lot of problems, and to be honest, a lot of accidents. »
“But in some ways I feel like it’s more of a missed opportunity at the start of the year than anything else. »
Alexander Albon validates James Vowles’ ‘everything for 2026’ strategy
So is Alexander Albon so disappointed that Williams F1 is focusing more on 2026 than 2024 or 2025?
Not in the least: he validates the strategy of his team director James Vowles.
“At the end of the day, I’m not too upset. I’m not here for short-term success. I’m in it for the long haul, so I’m happy with that,” he added.
“Team managers can talk, but I think it’s pretty obvious with the setbacks we’ve had this year. We’ve been pretty transparent about it, and I think James is very honest about where we are, showing the direction and the steps back we need to take in certain places to put ourselves in a better position for the future. »
Alexander Albon particularly appreciates the frankness and honesty of James Vowles, even his brutality on the current situation of Williams F1.
“He’s also very honest and open with me, and we have this frank dialogue. Maybe it’s taking a little longer than we wanted, but I’m glad we have the aspirations to not just fight in the middle of the pack. We want more than that, so we keep making sacrifices just to get the updates. »
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