When Williams misplaced George Russell to Mercedes on the finish of the 2021 season, it was straightforward to marvel in regards to the group’s long-term possibilities of success having misplaced its talisman driver, simply as F1’s new technology of technical rules arrived.
However when Crimson Bull lobbied Williams to place Alexander Albon into their vacant seat for 2022, it appeared like a mutually helpful association for all events concerned.
Pushed apart by Crimson Bull in favour of Sergio Perez for 2021 after his troublesome 2020 season alongside Max Verstappen, Albon’s behind-the-scenes work growing the RB17B and working simulator session all through race weekends to help the pair was invaluable. Workforce principal Christian Horner giving Albon appreciable credit score for his contributions to Verstappen’s eventual championship-winning marketing campaign.
After the primary six races of the season, even Russell was stuffed with reward for his successor, who scored factors finishes each in Australia and Miami.
“Alex has finished an distinctive job,” stated Russell forward of the Monaco Grand Prix. “There was clearly no secret he had a troublesome time that Crimson Bull. However I feel all of us, even in all probability Max included, simply knew how proficient Alex was.
“We’ve all raced one another since 2011. He’s all the time been one of many best possible, so it’s no shock to me, and I feel completely happy to see that he’s again in System 1, and that he has cemented his place.”
Having labored carefully with the Thai-British driver on his return to racing in System 1, Williams’ head of car efficiency, Dave Robson, had even greater reward for the group’s latest driver when chatting with media together with RaceFans forward of final weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.
“I feel, general, his efficiency has been excellent,” stated Robson. “Notably within the races. I’m very impressed with the best way he handles himself throughout the race.
“Qualifying is all the time troublesome due to the tempo of the automobile. However within the race he’s so calm and his skill simply to get on with it, see the larger image and handle the stints accordingly, I feel is admittedly spectacular.”
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With Williams’ FW44 missing the identical degree of efficiency as many different groups on the grid, Albon has needed to make use of some unconventional methods to attempt to create alternatives. Robson says this has solely been made attainable due to Albon’s racecraft.
“He could be fairly sturdy at defending and attacking when he will get the prospect,” Robson defined. “However his sturdy defence is sweet and has allowed him to have a few of the races that he’s had. So I’ve been impressed.
“I feel even higher than that’s he’s nonetheless getting higher, or we’re getting extra used to understanding what he desires and methods to work with him. So I feel there’s extra to return. If we are able to simply get a bit extra tempo out the automobile to provide him a greater probability at qualifying, then I feel we’ll see a step up in efficiency fairly shortly.”
It’s straightforward to miss the very fact Albon is, like group mate Nicholas Latifi, solely within the third full System 1 marketing campaign of his profession. However Robson believes that via Albon’s race expertise and the good thing about his time at Crimson Bull, he is ready to present Williams with the management they want throughout a time of nice transition for the group coupled with the most important technical rules adjustments for 2022.
“I feel Alex can present fairly an terrible lot of that,” he stated. “It will have been nice if possibly the large rule change had come 12 months later or one thing – if we’d had a little bit of continuity with him – as a result of it’s troublesome, significantly when the automobile is off the tempo.
“He is aware of what he desires. The bit we’ve received to attempt to work out with him is how a lot of what he desires can we really give him and the way a lot are we simply constrained by the principles and the tyres this yr and that may be a little bit bit difficult. However when it comes to understanding what he desires and him usually guiding the group from what he feels, then I feel he’s received numerous actually good expertise and invaluable enter. And I don’t assume he’s in any respect far-off with what he’s asking for.
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“Clearly, it’s been a little bit of a bedding-in and studying interval between us and him to grasp and interpret what he desires into kind of an engineering sense that we are able to really act on. That simply takes a little bit of time. However in any other case, I feel he’s received an terrible lot of helpful enter. He’s good at main the group in that regard.”
After two troublesome weekends for the group, the query for Williams is that if and the way they’ll proceed to develop the FW44 over the yr forward to attempt to guarantee they’ll hold capitalising on alternatives to attain factors. Do Williams have something main within the pipeline for the approaching races?
“There’s all the time issues deliberate,” Robson defined. “I feel there’s a good quantity of stuff that appears good within the wind tunnel.
“The massive query is with the useful resource limitation or the associated fee cap limitation – at what level do you commit what’s within the tunnel to the true automobile, or do you simply grasp on and hope there’s yet one more large step to return within the tunnel which you can seize. In order that’s in all probability the stage that we’re at for the time being. There’s some good route, some good bits that positively would make the automobile quicker, however we’re nonetheless simply weighing up precisely when to commit that to fabricate.
“I feel for the subsequent couple of races, we’re again to extra decrease downforce sort circuits that shall be fully completely different. I don’t assume there shall be any main upgrades for these pair of fly-aways. After which it’s how quickly after that will we resolve to ship the package deal – that’s one thing we in all probability may resolve this coming week, really. So there’s stuff on its approach.”
Regardless of comfortably out-qualifying group mate Nicholas Latifi once more final weekend in Monaco, Albon later described his personal efficiency throughout the weekend as “scruffy”. Charles Leclerc was lower than impressed by Albon refusing to yield for blue flags after pitting for slick tyres on the drying monitor. After rejoining the circuit with the Ferrari proper behind him on intermediate tyres, Albon failed to permit the chief via virtually a whole lap, to the audible frustration of Leclerc.
Albon would finally lock up and run huge into Sainte Dedicate, permitting Leclerc via. It was the primary of a number of incidents for Albon, who suffered a puncture after hitting the within barrier at Rascasse earlier than later receiving a five-second time penalty for reducing the chicane and gaining a bonus. He would finally retire on lap 50.
“With Alex, we opted to play the lengthy sport on the total moist tyres and run it till the monitor was prepared for slicks,” Robson defined after the race.
“We timed the transition fairly nicely and he discovered some good tempo on hards till he went straight on at T1 after which punctured the tyre. His tempo on the mediums after the pink flag was once more sturdy, however as he was now out of place, he couldn’t make any locations. We retired the automobile when Alex reported some sudden bouncing on the straights.
“It was a troublesome race, however we learnt rather a lot in regards to the FW44 this weekend, a few of which shall be related to the subsequent race in Baku.”
