Amid a strong start to the 2025 Formula 1 campaign, Alex Albon has conceded that the Williams FW47 demands a compromised set-up to exploit a narrow performance window.
Williams has scored points across three consecutive rounds for the first time since 2017; its current tally, 19, exceeds the amount scored across all 24 legs of last year’s calendar.
The FW47, then, is a clear step up from the cars Williams has produced in recent years.
Still, Albon admitted to select media, including Motorsport Week on Thursday, ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, that the team has continued to chase a narrow performance window with its current challenger, which demands certain compromises.
“To be quick with this car, it needs a certain set-up, and it’s not always the most comfortable setup,” Albon said.
“It was clear there are a couple of corners on each track that we go to that we are relatively weak, compared to the midfield. It’s not that we’re… I think we’re producing good downforce, we’re just struggling with balance in a few corners.
“But to fix them means we normally have to compromise the rest of the lap, so it makes it quite a narrow window that we are in most weekends. That’s not new, and we’ve had that for many years.”
Williams has made ‘a huge step’ – Albon
Albon admitted that means trade-offs are needed from track to track, and when there are fewer of those, like in Melbourne, Williams can challenge further forward, but races like China forced a greater compromise.
However, with Williams surging to the front of the midfield back in 2025, Albon exclaimed that the FW47 is “a huge step from us. The windows that we’re talking about are much less, but they’re still there.
“I think a good example would be Japan. We were really weak in some corners around the lap, but on the rest of the lap, we’re actually not far away from the top scores.
“But we can’t get one without the other, so that’s been our main issue.”
Albon has consistently led the Williams charge so far, scoring 18 of Williams’ 19 points and featuring in every angle top-10 qualifying shootout.
The Anglo-Thai driver said he knows “how to extract the lap time better than I did last year.
“Sometimes last year, we were always getting caught up with certain issues in the car, but this year I feel more consistent, and easier to achieve a lap time,” he added.
Williams’ testing form has gone ‘out the window’
“The most satisfying thing for us is more that, conceptually, it seems like it’s the right direction,” Albon said, which was clear from pre-season testing, where Williams became a clear candidate for midfield supremacy.
However, that was back in February with considerably cooler temperatures.
The Bahrain heat is in full force this weekend, which could expose some classic limitations for Williams, and Albon is keen to see whether the team’s progress can be validated in this regard.
“I think a lot of what happened in testing goes out the window,” he said.
“When the track changes like this, we’re talking about 35-40 degrees differences in track temp, so it’s a totally different ballgame.
“Generally, with us, we tend to go a little bit better when the track’s cooler.
“This will be a good test though for us, because I think this will really show us… If you think about the first three races, the deg has been very low.
“This track is high deg, rear deg. The last three races have been a bit more 50-50.
“So, a good test for us, to see whether Williams has hopefully improved, because this would be, if we were racing here last year, a bad weekend for us.”
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