Alex Albon believes it’s genuinely possible for both Williams drivers to beat both Ferraris in Sunday’s Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
Albon and his team-mate Carlos Sainz were faster than both Ferraris through all three phases of Saturday’s qualifying session at the Miami International Autodrome.
Lewis Hamilton dropped out in Q2, qualifying 12th, leaving just Charles Leclerc to try and best the two-pronged Williams attack in the Q3 top-10 shootout.
The Monegasque failed, with Sainz qualifying sixth and Albon seventh, the former just three-and-a-half-tenths from pole position.
A bittersweet Albon was disgruntled not to be leading the Williams charge, but optimistic over his team’s chances in the main event.
“Disappointed a little bit, happy but disappointed,” was the Anglo-Thai driver’s verdict when speaking to select media including Motorsport Week.
“I think honestly, if it wasn’t P7, it would be P6, so glad that we’re together.
“I think it’s going to be important for us in the race tomorrow to be together.
“If we want to beat the Ferraris, which honestly I think is possible, we need to work together, so, yeah, happy I think not not the best job on my side.”
Beating two Ferraris in qualifying shows just how much Williams has progressed since last season, but Albon saw the signs coming into qualifying that a strong result was on the cards.
“I thought there’s a chance, and then actually when we came to qualifying, I think about Sprint qualifying compared to qualifying just now, the tyres were working much better for us,” he continued.
“We actually did some really good differences on our outlaps to try to get the tyres in a better window and work for our cars, so let’s say I was hoping for Q3 and then by the pace we were showing I knew yeah P6/7.”
Sainz: ‘How can we be so fast?’
Sainz was overjoyed after qualifying, especially after having a disappointing Sprint where tagging the inside wall of the chicane resulted in a DNF.
However, turning things around to produce a strong qualifying result was a great source of pride for the Spaniard.
“It’s been a very scrappy weekend both on the operational side and the driving side where there’s a lot of mistakes happening from both the team and my side where we were scratching our heads like how can we be so fast, but at the same time make so many mistakes in two or three sessions,” Sainz exclaimed.
“We managed to press the reset button and managed to show the potential that we’ve had the previous two to three sessions.
“So I’m very happy with that, very happy with the capacity to press the reset and and go again, and happy to finally unleash the potential that I saw in FP1 and quali yesterday.”
Moreover, to be within a few tenths of pole position was another reason for Sainz to be very happy in a job well done, but he pointed out the Miami track could be an “outlier” that benefits the FW47.
“To put the car in P6 only three tenths away from pole starts to be something serious, you know, and, yeah, very happy with that,” he added.
“I think to be three tenths off pole, we must be doing things well this weekend.
“I think it might be a bit of an outlier where this track seems to suit our car quite nicely because since FP1 the balance and everything just fell in the window and in the sweet spot.”
Still, just a few months after departing Ferrari to make way for Hamilton, Sainz must have slept soundly on Saturday night that he made a wise choice picking his new team.
READ MORE – Alex Albon credits driveability for Williams’ strongest F1 start since 2016
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