Alex Albon says AlphaTauri now provides a “very real” threat to Williams in this year’s Constructors’ Championship after Daniel Ricciardo’s result in Mexico City.
Ricciardo claimed seventh place last time out to elevate AlphaTauri from the foot of the standings to eighth.
While Albon was able to collect a couple of points by classifying in ninth place Williams’ advantage over AlphaTauri was trimmed to 12 points.
“The threat is very real,” said Albon. “They’ve put on their upgrade and I think straight away made a big step and at the same time what it looks like seem to have unlocked it more and more through the year, so they’ve overtaken us in terms of pace.
“They’ve gone to a couple of tracks – and I think this track will be another example – that suits their car quite well. They seem to be very strong in low-speed corners, so it is going to be tough.
“The last three races are more about holding on than anything else, but you don’t want to have that mindset, you still want to be aggressive and push on, but it will be tricky.
“We’ve taken the choice to stop upgrading our car since we put on the upgrade in Canada, so for us a lot of it now is about next year. Of course it would be a shame to miss out on P7 but I still think it’s the right thing to do.”
Albon suggested that Williams will have to strive to grasp any chances that come its way across the remainder of the season.
“We still have a competitive car, even if it’s not as competitive,” said Albon. “It sounds weird to say but it’s a little bit old – even if it’s just four months old.
“Mexico is a really good example of what we need to do for the rest of the year. We need to take advantage of opportunities when they come.
“I felt like in Mexico we executed everything as well as we could have done, to the point where we only lost out to Daniel by four points instead of six if we didn’t score. Races like that are basically what’s made our season so far, and we’re going to have to continue to do that for the rest of the year.”
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