Alex Albon believes that Williams have made a step forward with the FW45, saying that it has “addressed some of the problems” faced by its predecessor.
Williams finished at the foot of the 10-team championship in 2022 and reguarly had the slowest package on the grid.
Albon and new team-mate Logan Sargeant both took part in a filming day at Silverstone on Monday and shared driving duties behind the wheel of the FW45.
During the shakedown, Albon offered a positive early assessment of the new FW45 when speaking to Williams ambassador Jenson Button.
“It feels pretty good actually,” said Albon. “You know how it is sometimes when you drive the car for the first time, it’s a little bit like ‘okay, we’ve got some work to do’.
“Today was a bit more, ‘you know what? This is a good baseline, we actually have a well-balanced car’. So the pace is the pace, but the feeling of the car is good.”
Former world champion Button also noted that Albon was ‘flat out’ through Abbey and Copse in within the first few laps of running in his brand-new machinery.
“I mean, I’m actually really happy. I feel like we’ve addressed some of the problems, it’s always a little bit of a ‘what if’, until you actually drive the real car,” Albon said.
Despite the positivity surrounding his first impressions of Williams’ 2023 challenger, Albon wasn’t willing to get carried away ahead of pre-season testing.
“I don’t want to speak too soon as well, maybe we’re not as good as we think we are, but we’re going in the right direction and that’s the main thing,” he added.
“We’ve got a good baseline, a good platform now to go into Bahrain with and hopefully we can build on that and start adding some downforce.”
With the limitations placed on shakedown runnings, it is hard for drivers and teams to get a real understanding of their new creations. However, Albon ended his running with optimism he will take to Bahrain for pre-season testing.
“A pretty good day I would say. I’m really happy with today,” he said. “There is always a bit of anticipation if the car is going to feel good or not.
“For now, it’s seven degrees here, not very representative but the car feels good. I’m happy. We’ve done our work and I feel like we have made improvements. Now we just wait until Bahrain to see what everyone else has improved on.”
