Alex Albon has detailed how Monaco being the “least weight penalising track” on the Formula 1 calendar enabled him to take Williams’ maiden Q3 2024 appearance.
Williams has endured a disappointing start to the campaign, but Albon excelled on the Monte Carlo streets to book a top-10 starting spot for the first time this term.
The Anglo-Thai racer elected to complete a single lap during the pole position shootout in between the other drivers’ two runs to beat Alpine’s Pierre Gasly into ninth.
“It was great,” Albon expressed. “We’ve been good with the car all weekend.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit with understeer in Sector 2, but we’ve made some changes throughout today and we’ve fixed most of it.
“We didn’t cure it, but we got on top of it and then it was just trying to get the tyres to get into the window.
“And once we had the tyres in the right window that’s why we chose clean air to focus on the tyres and don’t worry about the track evo as much.”
Albon believes the Grove-based squad capitalised on a more all-rounded car this term and Monaco being less penalising compared to other venues on added weight.
Asked what it was about the circuit that suited the car better, Albon said: “The weight. On paper, this track is the least weight-penalising track of the year.
“So, one is the most and here’s the least. It makes it not fair game, but fairer game around here.
“Also, just the DNA, the base car has changed a lot from last year. If you think about the areas we try to focus on, it was low speed, tight corners.”
But while Albon has taken it as a promising sign as to what Williams can achieve once it reaches the minimum weight limit, he admits it won’t be a short-term process.
Questioned on whether his best result this season to date was a good glimpse into the future, Albon replied: “It is, but weight’s not that easy to lose. At least it is for us.
“So yeah, we’ve got some work to do to try to check it out. But we’ve known that.
“We know our deltas every weekend when we compare where we are to where we could have been.
“But it is a cutout, you know, we do need to fix that and try to not be overweight because I think we can have performances like this a little bit more often.”
Albon is also remaining cautious over his chances at converting ninth on the grid into points in the race amid the excessive graining he encountered through practice.
Regarding his prospects, Albon previewed: “Let’s see. Because last year we had such bad graining it was still easy for other cars to overtake us.
“So we’ll have to manage it. Manage the graining. We had bad graining yesterday as well in the long run.
“So what I’m hoping is that the quick guys will clear it off and give me some clean air to look after the tyres.”
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