Alex Albon was left dismayed and frustrated after a disastrous Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix that saw the Williams driver beset by poor strategy calls from the pit wall.
Suffering from a lack of pace all weekend at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Albon lined up a lowly 17th for the race, one of only three drivers to start on the Hard tyre.
Struggling in the high temperatures, it offered little grip compared to two-step softer medium compounds, leaving Albon a sitting duck as rivals passed him as his grip vanished.
Williams opted for a one-stop strategy to give its driver a tyre performance advantage at the end of the race on fresh Softs, but this failed, with the chance for points evaporating.
Albon was vocal with his displeasure after the race, accusing Williams of lacking the ability to think outside the box and adapt his original one-stop strategy during the 71 laps.
“I can confirm that the Hard tyre was not good in the race,” Albon told media including Motorsport Week.
“And I think that just affects the whole strategy. So, once the Hard wasn’t working, I think we had [a] chance to be dynamic and convert to a two-stop.
“But we were just a bit too stuck in our ways. And we just committed to something that wasn’t working. And then when you do that, you’re just in no man’s land.
“And, I mean, I think the messaging was, we’re looking good, we’re on a one-stop. But there wasn’t a two-stop. So, very painful.”
Albon not throwing Williams ‘under the bus’
Albon admitted the decision to start on Hards was a collective choice, but one that proved to exacerbate the competitive struggles that he had across the weekend.
“I think it’s a joint decision,” he confirmed. “You know, I’m not trying to change the strategy under the bus.
“So, I think that when you’re in that position, though, you have a chance to, it’s not, you don’t have to go to Lap 40 or Lap 50 to pit.
“You can go a bit different, and then that’s it, really. I would say, the pace was OK.
“To be honest with you, I must admit, we didn’t really have the pace either. So, back to the drawing board for Brazil.”
To compound his woes, Albon was asked on Lap 51 to swap places with team-mate Carlos Sainz, snapping back the scathing retort “this has to be the worst strategy ever”.
Commenting on the team orders, he said he did not have the full picture of what was happening.
“I think in my head at the time, I didn’t understand what the team orders were,” he explained.
“Because I thought Carlos was in a two [stop], I was in a one. But then, his two was so quick that he was already ahead of me.
“So, I was like, you know what? Okay, I understand how the tyres are working. I didn’t really understand the picture of the race at the time.”
Albon was also despondent about his entire weekend, ordering an urgent investigation into processes, hinting he believed his own driving could have contributed.
“It’s most probably been my most difficult weekend of the year,” he bemoaned.
“In terms of pace, it’s been the most difficult race of the year. I don’t think we really understand why.
“And normally this is quite a good track for me. So, this has been a couple of races where we’ve been struggling a little bit.
“We need to figure out where it’s coming from. We can see it in the data. We can see the issues I’m having with the car.
“But we need to just regroup, reassess, have a good catch-up before Brazil. I think we know the areas we need to focus on.
“We just don’t know why the car’s doing the stuff it’s doing. So, I’m sure there’s a bit of driving in there as well.
“But, I think we can just help ourselves and just get back to Q3s and Q2s.”
READ MORE – How start contact caused Carlos Sainz to incur two speeding penalties in F1 Mexico GP
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