Alex Albon has admitted he is “frustrated” that the “big step” Williams has made with its 2024 Formula 1 car has been disguised due to rivals making similar progress.
Williams recorded its strongest F1 campaign since 2017 last term as the team climbed to seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship with a total of 28 points.
Albon accumulated all but one of the Grove-based squad’s points, capitalising on the FW45’s potent straight-line speed to land seventh places in Canada and Monza.
However, Williams has strived to eradicate the limitations that had been embedded in its previous creations and produce a more rounded car that
But amid a chasm opening between the leading group and the rest, four teams have failed to score across the opening two rounds with Haas notching a single point.
Asked where he sees Williams in the pecking order at this stage, Albon said ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: “Clearly in the bottom five!
“The swing is around, I reckon, from top to bottom team, about generally two, two and a half tenths depending on the track, and I think that’s basically it.
“So in Bahrain we were kind of middle-middle of the back midfield. I think in the race we were a little bit better. We just never really got to show it. I think we slightly compromised on engine issues and PU overheating and slightly compromised on strategy. But otherwise, that’s it really.
“Bit frustrating in some ways, because we’ve made a big step, but everyone in that bottom field has made a big step.
“So everyone’s kind of closed the gap, but it’s all relative. And you look over your shoulders, you’re racing the same people.”
Questioned on whether he thought the margin had grown to the top five teams from last season, Albon replied: “Normally I would say no, but I was quite surprised.
“If you take if you took P11 to P10, there was 20 seconds [in Bahrain], was it? And that was to a car [Lance Stroll] that crashed on lap one.
“But I don’t think it’s grown. I think if anything, it seems to me like the midfield, the bottom midfield teams, have closed up a bit more in the race, and the quali is very similar to last year.”
With Williams having been tight on time to get its FW46 assembled, Albon is optimistic that developments can aid the British outfit’s pursuit to bridge that gap.
“We’re not far away, and there’s things on the car that we… updates and upgrades coming on, which would definitely put us in for a good Q3 and all that kind of thing,” he added.
“With all the delays of the car, we haven’t been able to put them all on. And in some ways, let’s see how this year goes, if we can catch up or not.
“I think that will be one of the biggest questions for us is if we can catch up, then I think we’ll be we’ll be OK. But if we if we are still a little bit behind, it’s going to be one of them years very similar to this last year where we were, you just have to make the most of the race that you’re doing and hope for a couple of DNFs to get you into the points.”
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