Albon has not yet been able to exploit the full potential of the improvements

At the British Grand Prix, Williams arrived with improvements to Alexander Albon's car. But the rain and mechanical problems did not allow the Thai to exploit the maximum potential of his new FW44.

Published on 02/07/2022 à 12:35

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Albon has not yet been able to exploit the full potential of the improvements

Alexander Albon would have liked to complete even more laps on Friday at Silverstone. © Photo Florent Gooden / DPPI

If in normal times, Alexander albon often manages to achieve better times than Nicholas latifi, at Silverstone the Canadian had no chance of competing. This weekend, it is the Thai who benefits from the improvements on his FWW44. Even if the rain during the first practice session dampened the 26-year-old's evaluations, the results were still there. With 13th position in EL2, the Thai was more than a second ahead of his teammate.

A satisfaction which counterbalances the frustration of EL1. “We need track time and despite the fact that we hardly have any, we have a car that we can drive better and that is a step forward from the previous car, so that is positive” , explains Alexander Albon.

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The first big improvements of Williams therefore seem positive and should allow the team to return to the back of the grid teams. But rain during FP1 thwarted the plans of the Grove-based team. “We had a limited day with the first free practice session taking place in the wet, so we weren't able to do as much running as we would have liked with the new aerodynamic package,” explains the Thai pilot.

Q2 objective for Alexander Albon at Silverstone

At Silverstone, Alexander Albon wants to aim for Q2 but there is still work to achieve his goal calmly. “We have a bit of adjustment and changes to make, but we have a good base and we can start from there and see how we go tomorrow,” said the Williams driver.

Beyond performances, Alexander Albon wants to have confidence in his car to take it as far as possible. “Hopefully we can get the car into the right window and get the balance so I can use the car and push it. And if I can trust her, then that’s good progress,” says the London native.

Also during free practice 2, the Williams driver had problems. “ Unfortunately, Alex suffered some damage, due to a vibrator, to the rear of his car and although this was completely unrelated to the updates, it prevented him from doing his full run on a lot of fuel.", details Dave Robson, vehicle performance manager at Williams. So to see the real potential of the new FW44, we will certainly have to wait for the third practice session and especially the qualifying at 16:00 p.m.

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