Albon: “It’s frustrating because it was a weekend where we thought we would do better.”

After finishing 7th in Canada ahead of Esteban Ocon and 8th at Silverstone ahead of the Ferraris, Alex Albon was hoping for another competitive weekend in Belgium. With the long straights of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Albon intended to make the most of the top speed of his Williams car. However, Sector 2 of the circuit proved to be quite challenging for the Thai driver. He could only manage a 14th place finish.

A significant deterioration

The main weakness of Williams in this race was tire degradation. « At the end of the stint, we struggled with tire degradation, and it made for a challenging race because we have low downforce. It’s fun in a way, but due to sector 2, it’s not as enjoyable anymore. We were degrading the tires so much, and we even noted it on the wet tires », said Alex Albon at the finish of the Grand Prix.

With a car on which the tires deteriorate significantly, the problem was going to be the second sector of the track, particularly tricky with fast corners. And sure enough, it posed a lot of difficulties for Albon and his teammate Logan Sargeant. Combined with the low downforce of the Williams, it was impossible to resist.

An impossible position to maintain

Alex Albon explains that with this excessive degradation, it was impossible to hold the cars behind him. In the straight line areas, the Williams was flying but then, it was impossible to hold on.

« The other problem I had was struggling with the cars around me, I basically had to push in sector 2 because as soon as I slowed down and tried to manage the tires, in turns 10 to 12, I was immediately under threat and at risk of being overtaken,” » explained Alex Albon after the Grand Prix. A situation well illustrated by his battle with Pierre Gasly: unable to overtake the Thai driver on the straight, he had to work hard to pass him in the second sector and then widen the gap.

Alex Albon admits that resisting the others while managing his tires was impossible. « I had to push the tire too much while fighting, and then it’s a vicious cycle because you degrade it even more and you’re already trying to save the tire but you’re not allowed to and you don’t have the freedom to do so », he said.

Improvement for the rest of the season?

Williams currently has 11 points, all scored by Albon, and is in 7th place in the constructors’ standings. A very good start to the season when we look at the recent years of the British team. The Grove team hopes to score points on other occasions during the season.

« We need to make sure we understand why we struggled so much. This package will be similar to Monza. It will be our next best chance to score points, so we need to learn from this weekend, so that when we come back to tracks that suit us, it won’t happen again » concluded Alex Albon. The Thai driver and Williams remain positive and eagerly await the resumption in order to score points again and extend the gap in the championship against AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo, and Haas.